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THE 



AGRICULTURE 



RURAL ECONOMY 



FRANCE, BELGIUM, HOLLAND, 



SWITZERLAND; 



FROM PERSONAL OBSERVATION. 



HENRY COLMAN, 



HONORARY MEMBER OF THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND, 

OF THE NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF FRANCE, 
AND OF THE NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Without forage no cattle ; without cattle no manure ; without manure no crops." 

Flemish Proverb. 



BOSTON, Mass.: 
ARTi:uR D. PHELPS, WASHINGTON STREET. 



MDCCGXLVIII. 



s '^^ 



o^ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1848, by 

HENRY COLMAN, 

Citizen of tlie United States, 

in the oflice of tlic Clerk of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 

/ fc n ^ £ I 




PREFACE. 



This treatise is respectfully commended to the candour of 
the reader. It was deemed a high eulogium when it was 
said of one on a memorable occasion, " She had done what 
she could." The author claims no higher merit than having, 
in the most anxious manner, exerted his humble talents, and 
availed himself of all the means within his reach, to accom- 
plish his undertaking in a practical, useful, and acceptable 
manner. 

In treating of sdnie subjects, many minute 4ptails are 
omitted, because he was not willing to tax his readers' 
attention with things already perfectly familiar. In regard 
to any agricultural operation, or crop, or improvement, the 
most full, exj)licit, and practical directions are given, and 
every peculiar feature brought prominently forward. Many 
things are omitted because they are of doubtful utility, or of 
uncertain authority. His great object has been, not to 
publish theories, but to state facts ; and the determined 
results of enlightened, exact, and conclusive experiments. 

a2 



IV PREFACE. 

There is some miscellaneous matter in the book ; yet he 
claims for it, if it have any. the merit of being strictly 
and highly practical. Even the miscellaneous matter, he 
hopes, will not be found without its use ; and if it serve to 
establish some moral sentiment, incidentally suggested by the 
subject, or to relieve in any degree the monotony or tedium 
of what might otherwise be, to many readers, unattractive, 
he trusts that an attempt thus to mingle the "agreeable 
with the useful" will not be severely judged. The great art 
to which the work is devoted is every day acquiring new 
importance, in its connexion with the economical and moral 
condition of civilized society ; and he consoles himself with 
the reflection, that the labours of a good portion of a life not 
short, devoted to advance and elevate this great art, if they 
serve only to awaken the ambition, and stimulate the exer- 
tions of those more competent to the task, will not have 
been thrown away. 

London, 
July, 1848. 



CONTENTS. 



I. Preliminary Observations 
11. French Agriculture 

III. Soil and Aspect 

IV. Crops 
V. The Forests of France 

VI. A French Landscape 
VII. The French Peasantry 
VIII. Size of Farms, and Division of Property 
IX. Measures of the Government for the Improvement of 
Agriculture 

1. Department of Agriculture . 

2. Statistical Returns 

3. Inspectors of Agricultural Districts 

4. Importation of Improved Stock 
3. Agricultural and Veterinary Schools 

6. Agricultural Societies and Show 

7. An Agricultural Congress . 

8. Conservatory of Arts and Trades . 

9. Society for the Improvement of Wool 
X. Paris Markets 



1. Corn Market .... 

2. Meat Markets .... 

3. Market for Eggs, Butter, Cheese, Vegetables, 

Poultry, Fish, &c. . . . 

4. Market for Forage .... 
3. Horse Market .... 
6. Flower Market .... 



Fruits, 



page 
I 
20 
ib. 
22 
23 
24 
23 
27 

41 
ib. 
ib. 
42 
ib. 
43 
ib. 
ib. 
44 
43 
ib. 
ib. 
46 

ib. 
47 
48 
49 



VI 



CONTENTS. 



XI, 



XII. 
XIII, 
XIV. 

XV. 



XVI, 



The Culture of Flowers, Botany 

1. The Floral Magnificence of England 

2. The Flower Gardens of Paris 

3. The Gardens of the Palaces 

4. Rural Embellishments in France, Holland, 

Germany, and Italy 
Abattoirs or Slaughtering Houses 
The Filth of Paris . 
Night-Soil — Poudrette . 
Agricultural Education . 

1. School at Grignon 

2. Veterinary School at Alfort 

3. Agricultural Colony at Mettray . 

4. Colony at Petit Bourg 
Crops 

1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 
3. 
6. 
7. 



XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 

XX. 

XXI. 

XXII. 

XXIII. 

XXIV. 

XXV. 

XXVI. 



Wheat . 

Spelt 

Rye . 

Barley . 

Oats 

Meslin, or Meteil 

Maize ; Indian Corn 

8. Buckwheat 

9. Millet . 

10. Clover . 

11. Lucerne 

12. Sainfoin . 

13. Beets for Sugar 

14. Silk 

15. The Vine 

16. Olives . 

General Views of French Agriculture 
Farm near Versailles 
Farm Accounts 

Agriculture of Belgium and Holland 
The Soil .... 
The Dykes and Polders 
The Water Machinery or Mills 
Flemish Agriculture 
The Soil ; and Size of Farms . 
The Cultivation of the Soil, Trenching, Ploughing, 

AND Manuring 
1. Deep Cultivation 



Belgium, 





CONTENTS. 


Vll 

page 




2. Subsoiling . . . . . 


. 209 




3. Draining .... 


. ib. 




4. Mixing the Soil 


. 210 




5. Rotation of Crops 


. 211 




6. Manuring .... 


. 218 




7. Liquid Manure . . . . 


. 219 




8. Cleanness of Cultivation 


. 221 


XXVII, 


Manures .... 


. 222 




1. Mineral Manures . . . . 


. 223 




2. Vegetable Manures 


. 224 




3. Animal Manures 


. 227 




4. Liquid Manures, and means of saving them 


. 232 




5. Compost Heaps . . . . 


. 235 




6. Jauffret's Manure . . 


. ib. 




7. General Remarks on Manures 


. 237 


XXVIII. 


Crops ..... 


. 238 




1. Colza ..... 


. ib. 




2. Navette .... 


. 241 




3. Poppy .... 


. 242 




4. Cameline .... 


. 243 




3. White Mustard . . . . 


. ib. 




6. Flax ..... 


. 244 




7. Hemp ..... 


. 250 




8. Tobacco .... 


. 254 




9. Hops ..... 


. 256 




10. Madder .... 


. 257 




U. Woad. .... 


. 259 




12. Weld 


. 260 




13. Carrots .... 


. 261 


XXIX. 


Implements or Husbandry 


. 262 


XXX. 


Spade Husbandry 


. 266 


XXXI. 


Live Stock .... 


. 269 




1. Oxen and Cows 


. 271 




2. Goats .... 


. 274 




3. Asses .... 


. ib. 




4. Horses .... 


. 275 




5. Swine .... 


. 277 




6, Sheep .... 


. ib. 


XXXII. 


Dairies .... 


. 278 


XXXIII. 


Farm-Housf.s .... 


. 282 


XXXIV 


Swiss Farming 


. 284 


XXXV 


HoFWYL. Irrigation 


. 286 


XXXVI 


. Agricult(trai, School at Hofwyl 


. 288 



Vlll 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

XXXVII. LoDi's Benevolent Establishment . . . 289 

XXXVIII. Institution for reclaiming Vicious Children . 291 

XXXIX. Condition of the Poor and Labouring Classes . 292 

XL. Important Practical Conclusions . . . 297 

1. Thorough Draining and Deep Cultivation . . ib. 

2. Manures . . . . . . ib. 

3. Soiling of Cattle . . . . .298 

4. Improvement of Live Stock . . . ib. 

5. Improved Articles of Culture . . . 299 

6. 'New Articles of Culture . . . . ib. 

Appendix — I. II. Select Farms ..... 303 



CONTINENTAL AGRICULTUKE 



AND 



RURAL ECONOMY. 



I. PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 

Agriculture is the first and most important of all arts. 
Though not more honourable nor more innocent than many 
other arts and professions, yet it is perfectly innocent, and is 
as honourable as any. That likewise may be said of it, which 
can be said of few others, — it is essential to human subsist- 
ence. We shall find few persons in the community who do 
not at once assent to this ; but often the assent is merely 
formal, and is not that deep and established conviction 
which should, much more than it does, prevail throughout 
the community ; and especially amongst those who, gifted 
either by talents or station, have most concern in moulding 
human destinies, and in adjusting the interests, and forming 
the condition of society. 

The afi'ecting and extraordinary events of the last two 
years should have their due influence upon every reflecting 
mind. In a single country, by the loss of a single crop, at 
least five hundred thousand persons have perished amidst 
the accumulated horrors of starvation, or the diseases engen- 
dered and aggravated by famine. Ireland has its millions of 
fertile acres untilled, and its millions of strong hands unem- 

B 



Z PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 

ployed. Had the agriculture of Ireland been what it should 
be, this terrible event — and one more terrible does not dai'ken 
the pages of history — could not in all human probability have 
happened. 

The essential character of the agricultural art is constantly 
pressing itself upon our attention. I have had from my 
childhood an inclination for rural pursuits. I have followed 
the plough many a day with a freedom and a buoyancy of 
spirit which seemed to have no counterpart but among the 
winged denizens of the air, who hovered around me, and 
with their thrilling notes cheered me on my way, and made 
the woods echo with their melody. I have cast the dry seed 
into the teeming earth, and watched its first bursting above 
the ground, and its gradual progress to maturity, recom- 
pensing every grateful attention bestowed upon it, until it 
poured its ripened treasures into my lap, with a grateful, 
and, I may add without presumption, a religious elevation of 
soul which no language could adequately express. 

We may be told that agriculture is a purely material and 
sensual art, and does not deserve a place among the humane 
arts. To a mind material and sensual in all its habits, every 
thing becomes material and sensual in the lowest and most 
degrading sense of those terms. But its rational pursuit is 
not incompatible with high intellectual attainments and the 
most refined taste. Whatever occupies and absorbs the mind 
exclusively, is, of course, unfavourable to any great excel- 
lence in other pursuits. Agriculture, pursued as a mere 
branch of trade or commerce, or a mere instrument of wealth, 
will be found to have influences upon the mind, narrowing 
and restricting its operations and aspirations, corresponding 
with any other of the pursuits of mere avarice and acquisi- 
tion, and which even those of the learned professions, when 
pursued wholly with such views, are sure to have. But when 
followed without exclusive views to mere gain or profit, it is 
far from being incompatible with a high state of intellectual 



PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. b 

cultivation. Many of the sciences are the handmaids of 
agriculture, and serve as well as ennoble it. Its practical 
pursuit, though it occupies, yet it does not exhaust the 
mind ; but, within certain limits, inspirits and invigorates 
all its faculties. A spiritual mind may spiritualize all its 
operations ; a religious mind sees in its wonderful and curious 
processes and their marvellous results, many of the adorable 
miracles of a beneficent Providence. That a profound study 
of the agricultural art, and an intimate acquaintance and 
familiarity with its practical details, are not incompatible 
with a high degree of intellectual improvement and culti- 
vation, we have too many living examples of this union to 
leave us to doubt ; and the immortal names of Cicero, Bacon, 
and Washington, show, from their own assertions, that minds 
highly gifted of Heaven have found their richest pleasures in 
rural and agricultural occupations and pursuits ; and in com- 
pany with many others, in ancient and modern times, form a 
magnificent constellation of learning, genius, and taste, shed- 
ding their splendour upon this useful art. 

When I hear this art spoken of with a sort of disdain, as 
wholly sensual and material, I would ask. What is there with 
which man has to do which is not material and sensual ? 
All his organs of perception are material and sensual ; all of 
that which he calls purely intellectual or spiritual, without 
the power of giving any intelligible definition of what he 
intends by it, is directly connected with, moved by, con- 
trolled by, and dependent upon his physical organization ; 
and is vigorous as that is vigorous ; healthy only as that is 
healthy; lives only by being well fed and well cared for. 
Even the pious clergy, who caution us so strongly against 
secular pursuits, and against seeking things earthly and 
temporal, without the labours of the husbandman, without 
beef and bread, without wool and silk, without milk and 
honey, since manna has ceased to come down from heaven 
by night, and the rock no longer pours forth its crystal 

B 2 



4 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 

treasures at the touch of the prophet's wand, could give us 
neither their prayers nor their exhortations ; the pious hands 
could not be raised to Heaven for its benediction, and the 
eloquent lips would become dumb. 

I believe the agricultural profession is highly favourable to 
good morals ; I shall not presume to say more so than any 
other ; but it will not be too much to say more so than many 
others. Perhaps it will be said, that the agricultural dis- 
tricts of England and other countries yield their full propor- 
tion of crime. I will not peremptorily deny what is often 
confidently asserted ; but I am not ready to concede to it 
until other proof than I have yet received is furnished. As 
far as my own personal observation and experience go, my 
conviction is the reverse of this. Two finiitful sources of 
crime are to be found in excited passions and in powerful 
temptations. Agricultural occupations, so far from exciting, 
tend to exhaust and allay the passions ; and the retirement 
and seclusion of the country present fewer temptations than 
the tumultuous life, the opportunities for vicious association, 
the disorderly hours, and the infinite variety of attractions 
and engagements of city life. Among, however, a degraded 
population, poor and half-fed, without education, without 
any interest in the soil, without friends to take an interest 
in their welfare, without any sentiment of the value of cha- 
racter, without self-respect, accustomed to pass their unoccu- 
pied time in drinking-houses and in degrading pleasures, and 
treated and lodged without distinction of sex, and without 
any regard to the common decencies of life, it is not sur- 
prising to find a nursery and hot-bed of crime, where it 
shoots up in startling luxuriance. My acquaintance with 
many of the villages and rural districts of England and Scot- 
land satisfy me that the favourable moral influences which 
might be looked for from rural life and agricultural pursuits, 
are there found in full operation ; and under a system of 
more general and improved education, and especially under 



PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 5 

institutions which would give those encouragements to labour 
which are the most powerful motives, as well as the proper 
rewards of industry and good conduct, these influences might 
be expected to be even more general. 

Let me speak of a district or country with which I have 
been many years familiar * : it is a purely agricultural 
district ; it contains nearly a million of inhabitants ; its 
climate is cold and severe ; its soil, with some exceptions, 
of moderate fertility, and requiring the brave and strong- 
hand of toil to make it productive. It has public and free 
schools in every town and parish, and several seminaries of 
learning of a higher character, and where the branches of a 
useful and literary education are taught at an expense so 
moderate, that it is placed within the reach of persons even 
of the most humble means. It has every where places of 
religious worship of such a variety that every man may 
follow the dictates of his own conscience, where religious 
services are always maintained with intelligence and de- 
corum, sustained wholly by voluntary contributions ; and 
sects of the most discordant opinions live in perfect harmony, 
recognising in their mutual dependence the strongest grounds 
for mutual forbearance and kindness. Taken as a commu- 
nity, they are the best-informed people I have known ; and 
they have numerous and well-chosen circulating libraries in 
almost every town. They have no connexion with any large 
market ; and the produce which they have for sale, goes 
through intermediate hands to the great marts. They have 
few or no poor, and those only the emigrants who may stroll 
there from neighbouring provinces. The sobriety of the 
people is remarkable ; they are every where a well-dressed 
people ; their houses abound in all the substantial comforts 
and luxuries of life ; and their hospitality is unbounded. 
They understand their rights and their duties, and have 

' The state of Vermont, United States. 



6 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 

often distinguished themselves by an extraordinary bravery 
and manliness in their vindication and defence. No where 
is public order more maintained, or public peace better 
preserved ; large portions of the inhabitants never bolt a 
door, nor fasten a window, at night ; and in a village of some 
thousand inhabitants, I have known a garden stored with 
delicious fruit, with no^other fence than one which served as 
a protection against cattle, as entirely secure from intrusion 
or plund^, as if it had been surrounded even with a prison- 
wall bristled with chevaux de frize. In this state crimes 
are comparatively rare ; courts of penal justice have little 
occupation ; the prisons are often without a tenant, and there 
has been scarcely a public execution for half a century. 
From such an example of a community almost exclusively 
agricultural, I have a right to claim for agricultural and 
rural life, all the beneficial moral and social influences to 
which its enthusiastic admirers pretend. 

The present excited state of the civilized world ought 
more than ever to call the attention of philanthropic in- 
dividuals and of governments to the immense importance 
of agriculture. I have been in France during the exciting 
scenes of a political revolution, in which I have seen 
very many thousands of workmen without the means of 
support from their labour, and large bodies of them actually 
dependent upon public charity for their daily bread. It is 
not the dangers to public liberty and order, growing out of 
such large unemployed and destitute multitudes, which so 
much disturb me, as the actual suffering to which they are 
exposed, and the melancholy future that lies before them. 
In London I have encountered, with an extreme depression 
of heart, thousands of squalid, ragged, miserable poor, with- 
out resource but from crime or charity. A distinguished 
manufacturer in one of the most industrious counties in 
England states that there are at least five hundred thousand 
operatives without employment, and many on the borders 



PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 7 

of starvation : tradesmen and professional men will tell you 
that every trade and profession is overstocked ; and one is 
daily saluted with the melancholy, not to say presumptuous 
exclamation, that there are too many people. This reminds 
one of the sad shipwreck of the French frigate, the Alceste, 
when many of the wretclied survivors, who were floating 
upon a raft composed of fragments of the ship, deemed it 
necessary to their own safety, to drive by force a large por- 
tion of their suffering companions into the sea — a sad and 
horrible alternative ! 

It would be more than absurd in me to attempt to 
prescribe a remedy for evils upon which so many sagacious 
heads and philanthropic hearts have concentrated without 
success their powerfiil energies. But I will point out what 
I deem the true cause of this great evil, and leave to wiser 
minds to suggest a cure. One thing is certain ; as matters 
go on, the evil must extend itself, and become every day 
more aggravated and terrible, unless some remedy is devised. 
The remedies for the wretched, or, if not wretched, the 
unfortunate condition of the labouring classes, which have 
been proposed in Paris by men whose good intentions I 
would not distrust, and which have been so fully and 
publicly discussed, are absurd, impracticable, and mischievous. 
The interference of government in limiting or fixing the 
hours of adult labour ; in attempting to establish a rate of 
wages irrespective of the time employed ; in proposing to 
equalize the wages of all trades, and determining the same 
rate for the skilled and the unskilled, the active and the 
indolent ; the proposition to furnish the unemployed with 
work at the national expense, and to destroy private com- 
petition by the establishment of national workshops, are all 
of them attempts which are sure to defeat themselves, and 
which are as impracticable for the end which they propose, 
as to attempt to chain the wind, or to stop the flowing of the 
tide. — None of them touch the true cause of the evil. 



O PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 

Must we affirm, tlien, that there are too many people in 
the world ; and that thousands and millions are born into it 
for whom there is no place at the table of a beneficent 
Providence ? Why, in France there are more than nineteen 
millions of untilled and unoccupied acres, and in England 
more than eight millions, all capable of yielding food and 
clothing to countless human beings ; and here and in other 
lands there are millions of acres, for the want of labour 
which might be applied, that produce not a moiety of what 
they might be made to produce. In ancient Rome, seven 
acres were the ordinary size of farms on which a family 
might be sustained. In Flanders, on a soil which was once 
sterile, but which human labour has made productive, two 
and a half acres will give ample suj)port for a man and wife 
and three children, or what is considered equal to three 
grown-up men and a half; and add to it three acres more, 
which this amount of labour is more than sufficient to 
cultivate, and you add a considerable surplus for other 
purposes. 

The great cause, then, of the evils complained of, is, that 
the cultivation of the earth is deserted ; and that such 
innumerable multitudes pour into cities and towns, and, 
filling every profession and every mechanical art and trade, 
destroy each other by a competition in articles of which 
the demand is necessarily limited. There may be too many 
physicians, too many lawyers, and too many ministers, for 
them all to get a sufficient and an honest living : and too 
many hatters, and too many printers, and too many shop- 
keepers ; for, besides that these persons furnish more of a 
particular article or service than the community require, 
their work is in general only formal ; they only manufacture, 
they do not produce ; they do not, like the grower of bread 
and of clothing, create that which may be said to have a 
substantial and j)ermanent value. For when was the time 
when there was too great an abundance of the materials — 



PKELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 9 

I mean particularly of those which can be kept from year to 
year — for food and clothing, for human subsistence and 
comfort. As long as this state of things continues, there 
must be misery in the community ; as the population 
increases, this misery must increase. 

In cities, money becomes the standard of prosperity. 
Wages are paid in money ; money is the instrument of 
subsistence, of gain, and of pleasure. Avarice, under these 
circumstances, becomes stimulated to excess, and often leads 
to crime. Men's happiness becomes dependent upon that 
which has no intrinsic, but only an arbitrary value, — a value 
which is always capricious and continually changing. If 
men could be induced to cultivate the earth, and, trained 
to the simple habits of laborious and rural life, be satisfied 
with what that affords them, if they would measure their 
prosperity and wealth, not by so many shining pieces of gold 
or silver, which they have hoarded in their closets, but by 
the produce of their labour in bread and clothing, and the 
various and innvmierable simple luxuries of life, with which 
a kind Providence so often blesses the labours even of the 
most lumible, how changed would be their condition ! If 
they could be as well satisfied to breathe the fresh air of their 
native mountains and forests as the corrupt and pestilential 
atmosphere of crowded streets and confined dwellings, from 
which both sun and light are shut out ; as well content to 
enjoy the simple and healthful sports of the country as the 
exciting and exhausting pleasures of city life ; if their taste 
could be better satisfied to contemplate the verdant fields, 
waving with crops or enamelled with flowers, than carpeted 
and gilded halls ; if they could be taught to prefer skies 
painted with clouds of brilliant hues, and studded with stars 
whose lustre never grows dim, to palaces blazing with arti- 
ficial lustres and adorned with the far inferior magnificence 
of man's genius and taste ; if, indeed, by any possible 
means, you could induce men and women, and, above all. 



10 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 

the young, to love the country ; if, in a word, you could 
keep them in the country by an attachment to its simple 
labours and recreations, and prevent their crowding cities to 
repletion, and thus destroying by competition the ordinary 
professions and trades which prevail there, where so many 
vigorous young men, and so many fair and blooming maidens 
rush in, like flies in a summer evening into a blazing taper, 
to find too often the grave of their health, hopes, happiness, 
and virtue, what an immense gain would be achieved for 
morals and for humanity ! 

But while matters continue otherwise, while such millions 
of acres remain unoccupied, while such thousands upon 
thousands crowd into the learned professions, and into the 
mechanical arts and trades, and fill cities to repletion, under 
the powerful stimulus of a vain ambition, an inordinate 
avarice, or a love of excitement, luxury, and pleasure as 
inordinate and unrestrained, we shall continue to complain 
of a superabundance of population ; and that superabundance, 
wherever the wave accumulates, will bring with it crime and 
misery. The decrees of Divine Providence cannot be violated 
with impunity. Every inordinate and unrestrained passion 
will yield its bitter fruits. Every infraction of the laws of 
man's moral constitution will be followed with its just and 
inevitable penalty. 

To my mind, then, the great causes of the evils of which 
society, especially in the old countries of Europe, is every 
where complaining, are primarily those which are now pointed 
out, — an excessive crowding of the professions, trades, and 
mechanic arts, creating a most baneful competition, and an 
entirely false assumption, which every where fixes itself in 
men's minds, that pecuniary wealth is the true standard of 
prosperity. Competition, which, when excessive, is so 
hurtful and serious in the mechanic arts and trades, is, in 
agriculture, always a good. Under proper management the 
earth cannot be made to produce too much. It is a generally 



PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 11 

received theory, that as yet there has been no surplus produce; 
that what is grown in one year is, upon an average, only 
sufficient for that year ; and that one year's entire failure of 
the crops would cause the destruction of the human race. I 
shall not speculate upon this theory, which, possibly, may be 
well founded, but which Heaven forbid that it should be put 
soon to experiment. In some years there may be a surplus 
of some products, and then there may be a dearth of others. 
But I have never known too much grown : I have never 
known the great mass of mankind enjoying too much bread, 
or too much clothing, or too many of the substantial com- 
forts of life. If they get the comforts, or their substantial 
necessities are supplied, then certainly we should desire that 
they should have the luxuries of life in addition, — above all, 
those simple luxuries which are the produce of their own 
honest labour, and to which that circumstance alone will 
always give a peculiar zest. 

Can any thing be done to remedy or abate this great evil, 
and to turn aside this rushing current, which threatens to 
accumulate in such masses of frightful misery ? This is a great 
inquiry for the philanthropist, and for all governments which 
have at heart the only proper object of government, that is, 
the welfare of the governed. The Divine Providence often 
punishes human cupidity and madness by its judgments ; 
but war, disease, famine, and floods, which sweep away their 
tens and hundreds of thousands, are dreadful curatives. 
They seem only temporary in their operation. They lay 
waste instead of fertilizing. They make man's heart sink 
within him ; and they leave behind them nothing consolatory 
or hopeful. No reflecting mind, at least no mind with any 
experience of human life, will suppose for a moment that any 
eflectual remedy can be at once discovered or applied. It is 
only the madness, or enthusiasm, if the milder term is more 
fitting, of a French revolutionist, which dreams that the 
whole form and relations of society can be suddenly changed. 



12 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 

and that tlie next morning's sun shall rise upon a cloudless 
sky, bringing back the golden age, dispelling all the fogs 
and mists of night, drying up all the sources of human 
misery, and pouring out a flood of universal peace, plenty, 
and happiness. 

Wliile human weakness and passions remain what they 
are, no complete remedy is ever to be even hoped for. It 
does not yet appear that Heaven designed that man should 
realize an optimism in this world. To our humble views it 
seems to be the aim of Divine Providence, by the limitations, 
uncertainties, imperfections, and trials of this state, to 
stimulate a virtuous ambition, and to arouse the minds of 
the well-disposed to all possible exertion to ameliorate the 
condition of their fellow-men. There is one ffreat encourage- 
ment to every philanthropic attempt. Little as any indi- 
vidual, or any combination of individuals, can efiect, yet I 
believe truly that no benevolent exertion, however humble, 
ever failed to produce some good ; and experience con- 
stantly shows that seed, which has been cast into the 
ground, may lie long concealed, may not show itself above 
the surface even during the life-time of those who planted 
it, to gladden their eyes, yet it may yield, though a late, an 
ample harvest. 

Every one knows the power of public opinion, and how all 
the world are influenced by fashion, or what is called general 
sentiment. I have heard of a man who was asked, as is 
common on leaving church, "How he liked the preacher?" 
His honest reply was, that " he did not know ; he had not 
heard any body say." This homely anecdote illustrates a 
striking element in the human character ; and shows how 
much our judgments, and consequently our actions to a 
certain extent, depend upon the rank which most things hold 
in public estimation. 

I wish to see an agricultural life, much more than it is, 
the choice of men of fortune, of influence, of talents, occupying 



PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 13 

tlie liiglier positions in society ; and this, not as mere dilettanti 
or amateurs, but as plain, active, practical Imsbandmcn ; 
men, not merely to come on deck in some fine sun-shiny day, 
to admire the ship with all her canvass filled, and all her 
streamers flying, as a beautiful object of art, and, in a spasm 
of poetical frenzy, to enjoy the deep green of the ocean, and 
its graceful undulations, and its ruffled Avaves ; but who 
understand perfectly the art of navigation, who " knoAv every 
rope in the ship," the nature and stowage of the cargo, and 
the place and duties of every man in the company. 

I have devoted weeks, and months, and years, in my 
humble way, to recommend this noble art, to vindicate its 
claims to the attention of those who have at heart their own 
and the welfare of the community, to show that it is a source, 
if not of large, yet of reasonable profits ; that as an occupation 
it is as honourable as it is useful ; that it conduces to health 
of body and peace of mind ; that rural pleasures are, to a 
well-disciplined mind, among the last to cloy and exhaust it, 
and wholly pure and innocent ; but especially, that a strictly 
agricultural life, under those reasonable limitations which 
apply to every other pursuit, is not incompatible Avith the 
pursuit of science and the cultivation of a refined taste ; so 
that men of fortune, talents, and liberal education, who now 
sacrifice their fortunes in the idle pastimes and frivolities of 
city life, and their health and peace of mind in its feverish 
excitements, and the competitions of a diseased vanity and 
ambition, would find in the simple and hospitable habits of 
rural life, health and vigour of body and mind, and that inde- 
pendence of money and of time, and opportiniities for general 
reading, or the prosecution of any favourite science, which it 
is almost impossible to find in the crowded haunts and the 
eternal and ever-varying round of city engagements and 
pleasures. The most gifted minds accomplish comparatively 
little, and fall far short of what might be hoped and expected. 
The most humble contributions may not be without avail in 



14 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 

affecting the mass of public opinion and sentiment. I am 
happy in thinking that I have sometimes struck a sym- 
pathetic chord in some generous minds ; and under any and 
every discouragement, I console myself with the perfect and 
serene consciousness of having laboured at a purpose wholly 
disinterested, innocent, and useful. 

What governments should do in the case is a most im- 
portant question. A great portion of the governments which 
have existed, have been little else than an unmitigated curse 
to mankind. The accumulation of wealth, the acquisition of 
territory, family aggrandisement, purposes of purely selfish 
ambition, the mere pomp and luxuries of life, military 
domination and despotism, have been almost the sole pur- 
poses aimed at by the governments of the world. The only 
legitimate purposes of government are the security and 
welfare of the governed ; but how little have these been 
regarded ! how often entirely overlooked ! Holding, as I 
do, all offensive war of every description, and under any 
pretext, as a crime against humanity and against God, 
one's heart bleeds at the recitals of history, which seem 
little else than recitals of bloody conquests and human 
slaughter, of wasted fields, of famishing millions, and of 
sacked and burning villages. If the millions and millions 
of labouring hands, of sacrificed lives, and of hardly-earned 
treasures, which have been worse than squandered upon 
these wicked objects, had been devoted to the subjuga- 
tion and cultivation of the waste places of the earth, and, 
instead of attempts to destroy, society had devoted itself to 
attempts to save life, and to the production of food and the 
multiplication of the comforts and innocent luxuries of man- 
kind, how different would have been the result ! 

What an extraordinary ' moral anomaly, if so it may be 
called, does France at this moment present ; a nation on 
the verge of bankruptcy burdened with excessive taxation, 
with an army of four hundred thousand men, and more than 



PKELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 15 

nineteen millions of acres of unoccupied land, all susceptible 
of cultivation, and of feeding- and clotliing millions ! Does 
Great Britain furnish no parallel to this monstrous fact ? 
With an increasing national debt, whose payment is perfectly 
hopeless, a weight of taxation the subject of universal com- 
plaint, millions upon millions lavished upon her armies and 
navies ; workhouses and prisons filled to repletion ; thousands 
and hundreds of thousands upon the verge of starvation ; and 
in the two great islands, resplendent with the brightest lights 
of civilization, more than thirteen millions of acres of un- 
occupied land, and even her cultivated soil, with an improved 
agriculture, capable of sustaining in plenty three times the 
number of those who now draw nourishment from her breast. 
What a singular conjuncture of circumstances ! 

Are not these monstrous facts ; deeply distressing to 
philanthropy ; deeply wounding to human pride ? We may 
well ask. If in two of the most enlightened, the most civilized 
and the most polished nations which have ever existed, 
nothing better has been attained, or rather so much remains 
unaccomplished for human comfort ; such a mass of human 
crime and misery remains unreached and unalleviated, have 
we not some reason to ask, what are the blessings, and what 
are the triumphs of civilization ? We have a right to demand 
whether the true ends of government and society have been 
answered ; whether it has really reached .the limits of its 
power for good ; and whether it has not yet to study the 
arts of peace and the public welfare. The expenses of 
fortifying Paris and of providing its armaments would have 
converted a whole department into a garden, teeming with 
the substantive comforts and luxuries of life. The enormous 
expenses of the wars, under the empire, of which now little 
remains but triumphal arches stained all over with human 
blood, and splendid monuments to the glory of one of the 
great butchers of the human species, would have converted 
the whole of France into a fruitful field ; planted every where 



16 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 

scliools, cliurclies, colleges, and smiling villages; filled her 
every where with the industrial arts, and with monuments 
of taste ; banished, under the blessing of Heaven, all want, 
where there was industry to collect, and frugality to use the 
products of nature's bounty; and put it in the power of every 
one of her thirty-six millions of people to sit down in peace 
and comfort under his own vine and fig-tree. The moneys 
expended in the naval armaments of Great Britain, in the 
preparation of munitions of Avar, in the support of her navies 
and armies in any year of her history, what would not they 
have done in subduing and making her waste lands pro- 
ductive ! The sums expended for her defence of Ireland, for 
the repression of disorders, in a great measure consequent 
upon her wants and miseries, and the vast sums bestowed 
upon that wretched country in charity, the necessity of which 
springs directly and wholly from its neglected and wretched 
agriculture, what would not they have accomplished in drain- 
ing her bogs, in enriching her meadows, in changing her mud 
hovels into comfortable cottages ; in warding off the grim 
horrors of famine, and in raising millions of human beings, 
sunk, as I myself have witnessed, in a lower degradation 
than that in which it seemed possible that human life could 
be sustained, to the common level of humanity, and even to 
a high measure of comfort and civilization ! 

What then shall government do to remedy the dreadful 
evils under which civilized society is now groaning aloud ; 
and one part of Grod's family is impiously complaining that 
He permits another portion, though with equal rights as 
themselves, to come into the world ; and our cities, from an 
excessive competition or production in the pursuits of 
mechanical industry, or in the learned professions, are every 
where teeming with masses of misery and crime ? I do not 
say that an extended and improved agriculture would prove 
the only remedy ; nor that it would prove a certain remedy ; 
but I believe it would prove effectual to a certain and large 



PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. '17 

degree ; and I demand to know wliat single remedy will 
prove more efficient. To whatever degree, be it more or less, 
to which it is extended, it increases national wealth ; it 
multiplies the means of subsistence ; it withdraws men from 
the competitions of trade and manufactures ; and, above all, 
it attaches men to the soil, and so far gives a pledge of order, 
loyalty, and patriotism. 

The efforts of government, then, should be directed to give 
every possible facility and protection to this art or pursuit ; 
to render land accessible ; to break up those tenures under 
which, by various provisions, worthy only of a barbarous 
age, land is kept out of cultivation ; to alleviate, as much 
as possible, the burdens upon land ; to assist in all those 
great improvements, which are too vast for individual effort ; 
to diffuse agricultural knowledge ; to promote agricultural 
education ; to learn and translate the improvements and 
crops of other countries ; and by honours and premiums to 
encourage an emulation in the only art in which emulation 
is not only innocent and harmless, but always useful to all 
parties ; and thus to stimulate cultivation and improvement 
in every branch of this art and habits of domestic economy, 
by every practicable means. What governments can do on 
a large scale, landlords and proprietors may do perhaps 
more efficiently and successfully within their own domains. 
May they feel the great responsibility which their situation 
imposes on them ! If any one of the great nations of Europe 
would give but half the attention and half the expense to 
the improvement of its agriculture, which it now bestows 
upon its military preparations and improvements, we might 
expect an equal proficiency in the one art as in the other. 
Which should be preferred, whether it, be better to save 
life or to destroy, I leave to the judgment of my readers. 

It is now only a few months since I passed a day at 
Waterloo. I saw, waving with their luxuriant crops, the 
fields which had been enriched by torrents of human blood : 

c 



18 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 

I stood upon the grassy mound under which tens of slaugh- 
tered thousands lay entombed. I have a profound reverence 
for that heroism which bares its bosom in defence of right, 
justice, and freedom ; but I have no respect for that tiger- 
ferocity which delights in human carnage, and that mad 
enthusiasm which follows, reckless of its own and of other 
lives, the phantom which men call military glory. The 
cannon's roar, the waving plumes, the burnished helmet, the 
bristling bayonets glittering in the sunshine, have no charms 
for me. I took in my hands a skull pierced by a ball, which 
the plough had recently turned up. I thought for a moment 
of the burning passions, the fiery hate, the thirst for revenge, 
for conquest, and for blood, which had filled and swelled in 
this little casket,— the noblest production of Divine power, — 
when death instantly demanded the account. Other associa- 
tions rushed upon the mind. I thought of some once cheerful 
fireside made desolate ; of some aged mother robbed of her 
staff ; of a widow cast friendless upon the world ; of orphan 
children, and of weeping friends. And this, said I to myself, 
is military glory ; these are the trophies of war. I found the 
springs of feeling beginning to be deeply moved. I turned 
my eyes at once to other neighbouring fields of conquest 
which I had recently left. I had seen millions of acres, by 
an enterprise truly grand, a courage most heroic, a labour 
most indomitable, rescued from the sea, and its proud waves 
repelled ; barren sands converted into fruitful fields ; and 
where the ocean held its profitless sway, and the winds and 
waves and tempests were accustomed to spend their mingled 
and destructive violence, the calmness and security of rural 
life every where triumphant ; fields crowned with plenty, and 
speckled every where with rejoicing herds ; and cities and 
villages swarming with busy and happy thousands, and rich 
in all the arts and luxuries of civilized and refined life. I 
did not need to ask myself, what conquests are the most 
noble ? 



PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 19 

I liope my kind reader will not deem these reflections 
misplaced, as preliminaiy to the somewhat dry task and the 
plain matters of fact to which I now invite him. One of the 
most distinguished agriculturists which England ever pro- 
duced said, "that the best way of improving agriculture was 
to go abroad and see what other people were doing." I have 
been now some time in Great Britain and on the Continent, 
that I might see what other people were doing, and learn 
from personal observation the true state of the agriculture 
and the rural economy of the old world ; that I might pre- 
sent to the agricultural community in my own country and 
in other places matters of instruction and examples for imita- 
tion, if such were to be found ; or subjects of congratulation 
if their own improvements have already placed them in 
advance, and left them nothing to learn. A full survey of 
European agriculture is a task for many minds, for many 
years of observation, and for higher talents and acquirements 
than I could bring to the work. Yet I shall deem it no 
mean honour to contribute any useful sei-vice to so important 
an object. It will be understood that I enter the field only as 
a gleaner. It is said that the gleaners often bring home the 
heaviest and the ripest heads of grain, because these are the 
first to drop from the stalks. I shall be but too happy if the 
analogy should be found to hold in my case. 

I shall begin with sketches of French agriculture, and 
these will be followed by, and sometimes intermingled with, 
sketches of Flemish and Swiss agriculture, and other obsei-va- 
tions which may have suggested themselves in the course of 
my tour. There may be found some deficiencies, because I 
mean to state nothing, unless otherwise declared, which has 
not been verified by personal observation ; but, on the other 
hand, there will be this advantage, that such statements 
rest upon a responsible authority. My great object will be 
to give almost exclusively information of a practical cha- 
racter ; but if occasionally there may appear some slight 

c2 



20 FRENCH AGRICULTURE— SOIL AND ASPECT. 

digressions, my kind reader will regard them only as water- 
ing places on the journey, where the traveller loosens the 
reins and dismounts for a moment in a diy and dusty road, 
that he may renew his progress with more freshness and 
vigour, 

11. FRENCH AaRICULTURE. 

The agriculture of France is its great and commanding 
interest. Its manufactures and commerce are considerable ; 
but its manufactures are mainly concerned in the fabrication, 
and its commerce in the transportation and exchange, of the 
products of its own soil. I should have no difficulty in 
giving the statistical returns of the agriculture of France, 
but this comes only in a limited degree within my province ; 
and a long table of mere numbers would convey little 
instruction to my readers. It is of great advantage to 
France, however, that it procures these returns I'egularly ; 
and thus, as in the late scarcity of grain and in the failure 
of the potato crop, enabled the government to provide early, 
with a humane foresight, against the sufferings which were 
likely to follow. It is sufficient to say that France has 
nearly thirty-six millions of inhabitants ; and that in ordi- 
nary seasons she is able, to a great extent, to feed her own 
people from her own soil. 



III. SOIL AND ASPECT. 

The agriculture of a country of necessity corresponds to 
its climate, soil, and aspect. Besides these physical con- 
ditions, it depends upon many circumstances of a political 
or moral character, and others which may be termed acci- 
dental. The territory of France, stretching through nearly 
eight degrees of latitude, is susceptible of a great variety of 



SOIL AND ASPECT. 21 

cultivation. On the eastern side it feels the cold influences 
of a range of mountains covered with perpetual snow ; on its 
western side its climate is softened by the vicinity of the 
broad Atlantic ; its northern portions gather humidity from 
the ocean which bounds it ; its southern portions enjoy the 
sunny influences of an early spring and an almost tropical 
summer, and of the vapours which rise from that most 
beautiful of all waters, the Mediterranean, which laves its 
shores. Its territory is traversed in various directions by 
several magnificent rivers, the Rhine, the Rhone, the Loire, 
the Garonne, the Seine ; and many minor tributaries, which, 
if they have not the magnitude of many of the rivers of the 
western world, aiford nevertheless great facilities for inland 
navigation and transportation ; and, at the same time, 
present on their banks a large extent of alluvial land of the 
most productive quality. 

While the soil of these alluvial lands is most excellent, the 
soil of the high grounds, as far as it has come under my 
observation, is of an inferior quality. It is in general 
strongly calcareous, with the lime or chalk forming almost 
the entire surface. In dry weather, such lands suffer from the 
drought, and in wet weather nothing can be more unpleasant 
to work. Large portions of land likewise are found composed 
almost wholly of a yellow ocliry sand or gravel, mixed at the 
same time with an aluminous substance, and apparently highly 
charged with iron, which constitutes a soil very unfriendly 
to vegetation. Of soils purely aluminous or clayey I have 
met with few ; but there are many of a mixed character, 
with a loam of considerable thickness on the surface. These 
are capable of great improvement and productiveness. In 
some parts of the country, lime and gypsum (sulphate of 
lime) are abundant ; and marl of an unctuous and enriching 
quality is found in many places. 



22 CEOPS. 



IV. CROPS. 



The common crops of France are wheat, rye, barley, oats, 
beans, and potatoes ; but its peculiar crops are, beets for 
sugar, grapes for wine, and silk. Leguminous crops or esculent 
vegetables, excepting to a comparatively small amount, for 
human food, are little cultivated ; oats and barley, it seemed 
to me, only to a limited extent ; buckwheat, in the poorer 
parts of the country, in a small measure ; and although the 
southern portions of France, or more than one-half of the 
kingdom, would produce Indian corn, it does not appear to 
be largely cultivated, and its value seems imperfectly appre- 
ciated. Hay, or grass for hay, cannot be said to be largely 
cultivated ; but there are extensive meadows, which are left 
in permanent grass. Of the grasses cultivated for feeding, 
lucerne (if it may be called a grass) and sainfoin occupy the 
first place. The former, when cut green, forms the principal 
food of the stock during the summer, and when dried makes 
also an excellent fodder. Vetches do not appear to be 
extensively cultivated, the preference being decidedly given 
to lucerne. Beans and lentiles are cultivated in some 
districts. Hemp, tobacco, and flax, are likewise grown ; but 
they cannot be considered as prominent crops. Cabbages 
are sometimes largely cultivated for stock ; turnips rarely ; 
and few fields of ruta-baga of any great extent, have ever 
met my eye. I have seen large crops of colza and rape, but 
they do not predominate.. It must be understood that I 
make these observations with great diffidence. France is a 
large territory : diiferent portions of it, in all their habits, 
differ much from other portions. It would require years to 
give a thorough and perfect account of its husbandry, instead 
of a brief and cursory examination, which is all that my limits 
admit of 



THE FORESTS OF FRANCE. 23 



V. THE FORESTS OF FRANCE. 

Ill travelling through France one is constantly impressed 
with the immense tracts of land which are in forest. The 
forest connected with the palace at Fontainbleau, only about 
fifty miles from Paris, is said to contain 35,000 acres ; the 
forest connected with the palace of Chambord, 20,000 acres. 
There are other forests in France of great extent, some of 
them being portions of the national domain, and many of 
them the property of individual proprietors. They are not, 
however, kept merely for show, or luxury, or sport. The 
heath or common lands, in France, which remain open and 
unproductive, are returned as 19,499,180 acres, or about one- 
seventh part of the whole surface of the kingdom. The fuel 
generally used in France is wood or charcoal. There are, it 
is said, large deposits of mineral coal in France ; but they 
are not extensively worked, or are not easily accessible, 
though their value is beginning to be appreciated. Wood, 
therefore, is grov/n for fuel, and comes to market by means 
of the great rivers and canals in the form of wood or coal ; 
so that these forests are regularly and gradually cut off for 
timber or fuel, and either re-planted or suffered to grow 
again from the old stumps. The law permits the proprietors 
to cut off their wood only once in eighteen years ; and this 
under the control of a government inspector, who requires 
that it should be cut clean, leaving only such trees as may 
be valuable for ship-timber or for other purposes, which the 
government claims a right to take for its own uses at an 
equitable price. Under these excellent arrangements the 
supply of fuel is constantly kept good, and the price of wood 
has scarcely varied for a quarter of a century. In the cities, 
and in many parts of France, wood is always sold by the 
pound ; and it is curious in Paris to see the immense arks 
of charcoal and wood which come down the Seine, and piles 



24 A FRENCH LANDSCAPE 

of wood in the city, covering acres of ground, and on a level 
with the tops of the highest houses. The value of the 
timber in these immense forests is likewise great. Although 
throughout France the principal and almost universal mate- 
rial for building is stone, yet much timber and boards are 
wanted for floors and roofs, and various purposes ; and 
many large proprietors think that they cannot make a 
better provision for their children than by planting forests, or 
preserving and cherishing such as they already have. 



VI. A FRENCH LANDSCAPE. 

A French landscape is peculiar. A large portion of the 
territory is comparatively level, with few great inequalities. 
The appearance resembles that of some of the large prairies 
of the. United States ; for in a great portion of France fences 
of any kind are unknown. Here and there a large farm- 
house, or what is called a chateau or castle, meets the eye, 
with its customary appendages : but the labouring people 
chiefly live in villages, which seem scattered about like 
islands, and ai'e generally known by the spire of the church 
overtopping the cluster of houses. The French villages more 
resemble compact towns than country villages ; the streets 
are ordinarily paved ; the houses are placed directly upon 
the street ; and though there are usually or frequently 
gardens attached to the houses, it is remarkable that there 
are no trees either for shade or ornament in the streets. 
Yet the great roads through the country, which are usually 
as straight as they can be made, furnishing a paved way in 
the centre, and two side paths which are unpaved, are com- 
monly lined with trees on each side for many miles. 



THE FRENCH PEASANTRY. 25 

VII. THE FRENCH PEASANTRY. 

Excepting with the great farmers, where there are small 
buildings for the residence of the permanent labourers 
ordinarily in the court-yard, or immediate neighbour- 
hood of the great house, the peasants generally live in the 
villages, and sometimes go long distances to their work. 
They rise early, and among their first duties are those of 
religion ; their first visit being, in most cases, to the village 
church, which is open at all hours. I have often met them 
there in the morning, when it was scarcely light enough to 
seethe way; and I have found crowds of them in the churches 
at night, after their return from labour, when, with only one 
or two lamps burning over the altar in the church, it has been 
so dark that the dress of persons could not be distinguished 
until you came within arm's length of them. It is the 
beauty of the Catholic religion, that, although it is in a 
degree social, it is at the same time individual and personal 
in its character; that although the ceremonials of the worship 
are of a splendid, and often gorgeous description, yet the wor- 
shipper seems regardless of every thing but his own particular 
part in the service, which he performs silently, and generally 
with an intensity and an abstractedness which are remark- 
able ; and in churches whose splendour and magnificence it 
would require a brilliant pen to describe, I have seen 
labouring men in their frocks, and with their spades upon 
their shoulders, and market-women with their baskets upon 
their arms, go into the churches, and after performing their 
devotions, and evidently with no other object in their 
thoughts, go awiiy to their labours. 

In all parts of Europe the women are as much engaged in 
the labours of the field as the men, and jjerform indiscri- 
minately the same kinds of. labour. Having been much 
among the peasantry and the labouring classes both at home 
and abroad, I must in truth say, that a more civil, cleanly. 



26 THE FRENCH PEASANTRY. 

industrious, frugal, sober, or better dressed people than the 
French peasantry, for persons in their condition, in the parts 
of the country which I have visited, and especially the 
women, I have never known. The civility and courtesy, 
even of the most humble of them, are very striking. There 
is neither servility nor insolence among them ; their economy 
is most remarkable ; drunkenness is scarcely known ; their 
neatness, even when performing the dirtiest work, is quite 
exemplary ; cheerfulness, and an innocent hilarity, are pre- 
dominant traits in their character. In these respects they 
furnish a striking contrast with a considerable portion of the 
Scotch agricultural labourers, who are dirty and squalid to an 
excess ; with many of the English, who are servile, broken- 
spirited, and severely straitened in their means of living ; with 
the poor Irish, who are half-clad, and in a half savage condition, 
and to whom truth and fidelity are ordinarily words without 
meaning ; and with the Italians, who, to raggedness and 
squalidness and proverbial indolence, add a strength of 
passion which brooks no injury, real or supposed, and inspires 
in a stranger a fearful sense of the insecurity of life. 

The wages of the French peasantry are in general from 
a franc to a franc and a half per day to a man, that 
is, ten to fifteen pence, or twenty to thirty cents ; and to 
women about four- fifths of the former sum, or about eight 
pence or sixteen cents. In this case they ordinarily provide 
entirely for themselves. In harvest, however, or under ex- 
traordinary circumstances, they are provided for in addition 
to their wages. Coffee and tea are scarcely known among 
them. They drink no ardent spirits. Their usual drink is an 
acid wine not so strong as common cider, and this mixed 
with water ; they have meat but rarely ; occasionally fish ; 
but their general provision is soup, composed chiefly of 
vegetables and bread. Bread, both wheat and rye, is with 
them literally the staff of life. With all this they enjoy a 
ruddy health ; and the women are diligent to a jDroverb. 



SIZE OF FARMS, AND DIVISION OF PROPERTY. 27 

They seem unwilling to lose a moment's time. I have 
repeatedly seen them carrying heavy burdens upon their 
heads, and at the same time knitting as they went along. 



VIII. SIZE OF FARMS, AND DIVISION OF 
PROPERTY. 

The size of farms in France has been a subject of much 
discussion. The right of primogeniture has ceased to exist 
there ; and since the great revolution, the law has or- 
dained that the land possessed by any one at his death 
should be equally divided among his children. This did not 
take place without a hard struggle against it on the part of 
the great proprietors, nor without many predictions of ruin 
to the agriculture of France, from the infinite subdivisions 
which the land was likely to undergo, and the small size to 
whicli farms were about to be reduced. The law, however, 
has been maintained, and, as far as I have been able to 
observe, with the happiest results to France \ It was pre- 
dicted, that, under such an arrangement, no system of exten- 
sive agricultural improvement could be attempted ; and that 
small proprietors being thus multiplied, and the labourers 
tliemselves becoming proprietors, the lands of the country 



^ In France the total number of taxed landed properties is stated, in 1835, to 
have been 10,896,682, and these were again divided into 123,360,338 separate 
pieces of land. It is supposed, however, that of heads of families occupying 
estates, which combine many of these smaller divisions, and which consequently 
become merely nominal partitions, there are about 5,000,000. Now, allowing an 
average of four to a family, it will be seen that there are 20,000,000 of people 
in France directly interested in the property of the soil. The number of pro- 
prietors of the soil in England, who hold landed property yielding a rent of 100^. 
sterling per year, is stated, at the same time, at 38,000 ; and the whole number 
of proprietors of the soil in England and Wales is rated at 200,000, and in the 
whole United Kingdom at 600,000. The extent of the United Kingdom is 
about two-thirds that of France. — Statistique Generale de la France, par 
Schnitzler, tom. iii. p. 11. 



28 SIZE or FARMS, AND DIVISION OF PROPERTY. 

were destined to go into the Lands of men without capital, 
too ignorant to understand or learn the best modes of culti- 
vation ; and without the power of applying, even if they 
knew, them. 

These objections are not wholly without force ; but as this 
subject possesses considerable interest for many persons, I 
hope to be excused for enlarging upon it. It happens with 
respect to many things which are deemed evils, or from 
which evil consequences seem likely to result, that there is a 
compensating or balancing power at work, which, if left free 
to operate, of itself corrects the irregularities, restores the 
equilibrium, and prevents the evils apprehended. If all 
France were to be cut up and divided into pieces of ground 
of the size of a table-cloth, as from the comments made upon 
this law by those who know nothing of its actual operation 
one would suppose was likely soon to be the case, we should 
expect a state of things extremely adverse to the national 
prosperity. But it must be remembered, that while the law 
requires an equal division of the land among his children 
at the death of a proprietor, it does not require that the land 
should remain thus divided. The appropriation of it is left 
optional with those who inherit it ; and in this, as in other 
cases, they will be governed by their interests, their con- 
venience, and other nameless circumstances by which human 
conduct is ordinarily influenced. A father dying and leaving 
several heirs, sons and daughters, it is scarcely probable that 
they will all wish to devote themselves to agriculture ; and 
this too when the parts of such property growing out of this 
division would be, either of them, too small, under any cir- 
cumstances, for the support of a family. The result is, as we 
should expect it would be in such case, that some one of 
the heirs purchases the rights of the others, and the farm 
remains in its integrity. 

"What, then, is the advantage of such a law ? It is that it 
leaves this matter, as it should be left, to the choice of the 



SIZE OF FARMS, AND DIVISION OF PROPERTY. 29 

parties concerned ; and that it in fact prevents the too great 
accumulation of landed property in the hands of individuals. 
There can hardly bo a greater evil, in countries where labour 
is abundant, and population presses hard upon the means of 
subsistence, than that immense tracts of land, which might 
be made productive, should be locked up in the hands of in- 
dividuals who wnll neither use the land themselves, nor suffer 
it to be used by others. It seems a violation of natural right, 
justice, and humanity ; and there are many circumstances 
in the condition of society in the old world, which indicate 
that it must be modified or abandoned. 

One of the first duties of society is to give to every man 
a perfect security in the enjoyment of the fruits of his own 
industry ; but it is equally the duty of society to secure to 
every man disposed to labour an opportunity, as far as 
possible, fully and efiectually to exert that industry. The 
ends which governments ordinarily aim at for themselves, is 
the protection of property ; and almost all laws, being made 
by men of property, have this for their great object. But 
wealth is ordinarily quite able to take care of itself ; and the 
object of government should be to protect poverty, which 
constantly requires protection. The true wealth of a com- 
munity is its labour, its productive labour. A man is not 
the richer for houses which he cannot occupy ; lands, which 
he cannot use ; money, that he cannot spend. He might 
own a continent in the moon, but what would that avail 
him ? He might die of starvation in the vaults of the Bank of 
England, or in the undisturbed possession of the richest of 
the mines of Peru. Labour is the great source and instil- 
ment of subsistence and wealth. Labour, therefore, honest 
labour, should be, under all circumstances, the great object of 
the protection and encouragement of every just government. 
Laws should be such as to secure to labour, as far as possible, 
an open field for exertion. Such is the tendency of the laws 
of France respecting the posthumous division of landed estates. 



30 SIZE OF FARMS, AND DIVISION OF PROPERTY. 

The laws of primogeniture, by which large landed estates 
go exclusively into the hands of the eldest son, and laws 
of mortmain, by which lands are for ever appropriated to 
particular uses, are laws of a different description. The 
law of primogeniture seems to many persons essentially 
unjust in the favoritism which it implies, among those who 
obviously have equal claims upon parental kindness and 
impartiality. The law of mortmain and perpetual devises, 
by which extensive landed estates are locked up and appro- 
priated in perpetuity to particular uses, has met with many 
warm combatants. They ask, and with what reason I shall 
leave to the judgment of my readers. Was not the land given 
to man, that from it, by his labour, he might obtain a subsis- 
tence, which, in truth, can come from no other source ? Now 
shall any man, or set of men, so monopolise and appropriate 
this land that it shall not be available to these objects ? It 
would seem that the earth belongs to those who possess it ; 
and that, when a man once quits it for ever, his rights in it 
should cease ; yet society admits the remarkable fact, that 
men who died centuries ago, shall determine how the land at 
l^resent shall be used and appropriated ; or that it shall not 
be used nor appropriated at all. 

It does not come within my province to enter upon matters 
of dispute, which, in a period full of questions and inquiries, 
seem to be assuming importance, and are becoming matters 
of private and public discussion. I am well aware of the 
necessity of giving as perfect a security as human society 
admits of to the rights of property ; but these rights, it would 
seem, should be held in subserviency to a still higher right, 
and that is, the right to live. That which a man produces 
by his industry or toil, by his skill or genius, exerted without 
prejudice to the equal rights of another man, is his own ; it 
is his exclusively, and it should be his in perpetuity ; that is, 
the appropriation of it should be his, and should be uncon- 
trolled excepting so far as to prevent its application to an 



SIZE OF FARMS, AND DIVISION OF PROPERTY. 31 

immoral object, to an object prejudicial to health or life, or 
to the public peace and welfare. But the appropriation of 
the soil itself to any object in perpetuity, the shutting it up 
from use, the prevention of its occupation for purposes 
of human comfort and subsistence, seems incompatible with 
those natural rights with which the Creator endowed man 
when he commanded him to till the earth, that he might 
from it obtain a subsistence. The laws in many of the states 
of the United States, when the property of a debtor is seized 
for the payment of liis debts, very properly take care to 
leave him in the possession of the tools of his trade, that he 
may still provide for his own, and the subsistence of those 
dependent on him. A law Avhich would rob him of his tools, 
— and while the community and liis duty to himself and his 
family require that he should by his labour provide for him- 
self and them, should virtually put it out of his power to 
exert that industry, — would be of the same character with 
that which, under any pretence or form, in the midst of 
hungry and starving thousands, excludes them from the 
use of that soil from which Heaven designed they should 
get their bread, and from which only it can be obtained. 
It is one of the great effects of the revolution which gave 
independence to the United States, and of the great French 
Revolution, that it broke up these restrictive laws, and in 
general left property in land to follow the usual course of 
other property ; and, above all, made it universally attain- 
able. 

In the United States, where land is abundant, and where 
countless millions of acres must remain for countless years 
unoccupied, laws restraining the monopoly" of land are far 
less necessary ; but even in the United States they should 
have a care to guard against the perpetual appropriation of 
land for any objects whatever, whether under the plea of 
pious or of moral uses, as in fact a direct violation of the 
rights of every generation to .judge for itself, and to judge 



82 SIZE or FARMS, AND DIVISION OF PROPERTY. 

only for itself what shall or shall not be maintained ; and 
secondly, as conferring a power which experience shows is 
liable to gross and injurious abuses. 

A principal objection urged against this subdivision of 
land is, that it prevents any system of extensive improve- 
ment of the soil by the great processes of modern discovery, — 
draining and subsoiling. This argument has some force ; but 
we may hope that in many cases the owners, seeing their 
own interests clearly concerned in such improvements, may 
combine their forces to effect them. In many of these small 
holdings, likewise, the cultivation being by the spade and not 
by the plough, the land will be trenched as a substitute for 
subsoiling, and an equal productiveness secured. Where 
such improvements are obviously demanded, and they might 
be too great for individual effort to accomplish, there seems 
no reason why the government itself should not undertake 
them, assessing the expense upon the different owners of the 
land in such forms as would be equitable, and made payable 
at such periods as would render its discharge easily prac- 
ticable. 

It is objected likewise that these small farmers, having no 
capital to apply in the cultivation of their lands, and being 
of a class not likely to be acquainted with modern improve- 
ments in husbandry, their agriculture will probably be of an 
inferior character. These objections must be allowed some 
weight ; but then the holders of these small parcels are 
acting under the most powerful of all stimulants, that of 
their own immediate self-interest. They themselves being 
the owners of the soil, whatever improvements it receives, 
and whatever crops it produces, must accrue directly to their 
own benefit. The holding being small, it becomes the more 
important that it should be forced to the greatest extent, in 
order to meet their wants. This circumstance will prompt 
to the greatest exertions in procuring from every available 
source, and in saving their manure for the enriching of their 



SIZE OF FARMS, AND DIVISION OF PROPERTY. S3 

small farms. Labour and economy thus applied, may be said 
in themselves to constitute a valuable and active capital. 

But in place of speculations let us revert to facts, and in- 
quire how this system has actually worked in France. It 
has produced a great revolution in the tenure of jjroperty ; 
but from the best inquiries I could make among the most 
intelligent and candid, I found a unanimous and emphatical 
acknowledgment of its beneficial results. In what may most 
properly be called the rural districts, that is, a district some- 
what remote from large towns and villages, there are found 
farms in size from one hundred to five hundred, seven hun- 
dred, and a thousand acres and upwards ; and so it seems 
likely to remain. The law, though it requires a division of 
the real estate among the heirs, does not make it compulsory 
to continue such division. The law in fact does little else 
in such situations than, so to say, to bring the land into the 
market, and leave it then to be disj^osed of according to the 
circumstances of time and place. 

But in cases of partition we may suppose a farm of twelve 
hundred acres divided among four heirs ; they would have 
farms of a respectable size ; divided again it would leave 
farms of seventy-five acres each, which perhaps may be con- 
sidered the average size of farms in New England, and ex- 
ceeding the average size of Flemish farms. Even another 
division of the same number of parts might take place, and 
twenty acres would correspond with the size of many of. the 
most productive farms in Belgium. Many persons in arguing 
against such an arrangement, proceed upon the supposition 
that the division is to be infinitesimal. But this is absurd ; 
and, as I have already remarked, the evil of too great a sub- 
division has always a tendency to correct itself, and to stop 
where it would become positively mischievous. This is found 
to be the case, as I have remarked, in the strictly rural dis- 
tricts. But a person passing through the environs of large 
towns and cities will perceive that the division has proceeded 

D 



34 SIZE OF FARMS, AND DIVISION OF PROPERTY. 

very far ; the fields often appear like patcli-work, and are cut 
up into very small pieces. This is exactly as it should be. 
These pieces are owned by small gardeners, who supply the 
markets with fruit or vegetables, and who, on account of its 
limited extent, carry their cultivation to a high perfection, 
and often in the number, variety, and quantity of their crops 
on these small pieces of ground, astonish one by their success. 
Very often these pieces of land are owned by persons engaged 
in severe mechanical trades in the cities, who find health and 
needful recreation in their cultivation. One thing is quite 
certain in such cases — tliat no land thus situated will be left 
uncultivated ; and under tlie system of minute economy to 
which it is subjected, will unquestionably be rendered as j) re- 
ductive as possible. 

If we look at large farms in Great Britain, — I mean farms 
of hundreds of acres, with the exception of some of the best 
cultivated districts, such as the Lothians in Scotland, for ex- 
ample, or the counties of Northumberland, Lincoln, and Nor- 
folk, and only some farms in these counties, we shall find 
that even these are by no means always fully cultivated ; and 
that, either for want of skill, or enterprise, or capital, large 
portions of them are wholly unproductive. This is far less fre- 
quently the case with small farms, for the simple reason that 
the owners cannot afford to neglect their land, and that the 
management is much more easy. It is to be 'added likewise, 
that in very small holdings of six, or ten, or twenty acres, 
the great expense of a team, and of costly implements is 
dispensed with. In some parts of England, though very 
rarely, but in many parts of the Continent, and especially in 
Switzerland, the small farmers use their milch-cows for work, 
thus getting a double advantage from them ; and a milch- 
cow, used tenderly, and treated liberally, may be worked 
from four to six hours a day without injury to her milk. 
This saving is a great circumstance. On large arable farms 
it may be calculated, that from a fourth to a third of the 



SIZE OF FARMS, AND DIVISION OF PROPERTY. 35 

produce must be counted for the support, and equipments, 
and cost of the teams. The saving of this expense is a great 
affair ; and this is accomplished on small holdings where 
■ cows are kept, which pay the expense of their keeping by 
their labour and their calf ; or where, as in many cases, the 
whole cultivation is performed by human instead of brute 
labour — by the spade instead of the plough. I believe, there- 
fore, it will be found, that in a fair comparison, the small 
farms are in fact more productive than the large ones ; that 
they are managed at less comparative expense, and, in pro- 
portion, leave more for human consumption. 

If thus much may be said of the economical results, still 
more may be said of the beneficial moral influences of such a 
system. Of all the influences which operate to promote 
exertion, industry, and good conduct, none certainly is more 
powerful than the hope of bettering our condition ; and I 
may add, without undertaking to give a reason for it, as an 
established truth, that nothing inspires more self-respect, as 
connected with a feeling of independence, than the possession 
of property, and especially the possession of a fixed property 
in house or land. This effect is constantly seen in the labour- 
ing classes among the French. They are extremely ambitious 
of getting a piece of land ; and perhaps too much so, after 
once coming into possession, of extending their possessions. 
This stimulates them to industry, and induces the most rigid 
economy. The subdivision of property or of land in France 
renders this practicable, which, in other countries, where the 
right of entail prevails, or where property is held in large 
masses, and guarded with extreme jealousy, is out of the 
question. There is a wise foresight likewise in this matter 
in respect to the security of public order and the peace of the 
country. The persons of all others least likely to engage in 
projects of revolution certainly are those whose property 
must in every case be endangered by such revolution ; whose 
possessions are fixed, and not transferable from one place to 

D 2 



36 SIZE OF FARMS, AND DIVISION OF PROPERTY. 

anotlicr at pleasure. Their estates constitute the strongest 
pledge of their loyalty and patriotism. The more property is 
divided in a country, the more equally it is held, or rather, 
that it should be attainable by all on equal conditions, the 
greater security is there for the rights of property ; the more 
are concerned in the preservation of the public peace. The 
humblest agricultural labourer in France may look forward, 
by industry, sobriety, and economy, to become a proprietor 
and a holder in fee-simple of some portion of the soil which 
he cultivates. There is, therefore, the strongest inducement 
held out to good conduct ; and the beneficial influence of this 
condition of things upon the character of the French pea- 
santry cannot be doubted. 

Few things have struck me more forcibly than the differ- 
ence in the condition of the agricultural population of France 
and that of Great Britain — a subject to which I have already 
referred. I have never seen a more healthy, a better-clad, or 
a happier population, than the French peasantry. Something 
may be ascribed to their naturally-cheerful temperament, and 
something to that extraordinary sobriety, which every where 
in a remarkable degree characterizes the French people ; but 
much more, I think, to the favourable condition in which this 
law, which renders attainable the possession of a freehold in 
the soil, places them. 

I am extremely averse to making any unfavourable com- 
parisons ; and I am quite aware that my judgment may be 
at fault ; but I shall offend no candid mind by the calm 
expression of my honest opinion. The very poor condition of 
a large portion of the English agricultural labouring popu- 
lation must be acknowledged. The acquisition of property 
is, in most cases, all but impossible. The great difficulty, 
where there is a family, is to subsist ; in sickness they have 
no resource but private charity or parish assistance ; and tliey 
have in most cases nothing to which they can look forward 
when the power to labour fails them, but the almshouse. 



SIZE OF FARMS, AND DIVISION OF PROPERTY. 37 

I believe there is an equal amount of philanthropy, and as 
strong a sense of justice and humanity among the English, 
as among any people ; but it is not to be expected that in 
any country where wealth constitutes the great and most 
enviable distinction, and where, by various circumstances, 
avarice is stimulated to the highest degree, — that the great 
mass of the community should be either philanthropic, or 
humane, or just. Wealth is almost every where, in what is 
called civilized, and too often miscalled Christian, life, the 
great instrument of power. Power is a dangerous possession, 
and always liable to abuse. The only security against this 
abuse is the division of power ; and to give the humbler 
classes the means of helping themselves. 

In Great Britain, as I have already said, the rural labour- 
ing classes are placed in circumstances of hardship and dis- 
advantage. It would be ordinarily quite idle for them to 
aspire to the ownership of land. Philanthropic and benevo- 
lent persons in various parts of the country have given them 
small allotments ; though some have endeavoured to limit 
these allotments to one-eighth of an acre, and many farmers 
have combined in denouncing the allotment system, and 
have refused to take leases where the labourers were to be 
allowed allotments. The beneficial effects of these allot- 
ments, both upon the comfort and morals of the labouring 
classes, have every where been acknowledged ; but under 
the best circumstances, the allotment system can never be 
a substitute for that by which the ownership of the land is 
itself attainable. 

I will not contest th'e point that great improvements can 
only be expected to take place on large estates and with 
the help of large capital ; yet, on estates of a medium size, 
such as a hundred or even fifty acres ; these are, perhaps, more 
likely to take place than on estates of a much larger size, as 
being ordinarily more within the reach of most men — the 
majority of farmers being men of restricted capital. The 



38 SIZE OF FAEMS, AND DIVISION OF PROPEETY. 

immense improvements in dyking and embankments, and 
in redeeming land from tlie sea, which have been made in 
Holland, and in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, in Eng- 
land, could only have been effected by the union of large 
bodies of proprietors. No single fortune is any where com- 
petent to such enterprises. 

I will not deny that under a system of large farms more 
produce may be for sale ; and, in a commercial view, more 
money will be made, and larger fortunes accumulated. But 
I cannot agree that the wealth of a community, held as it 
ordinarily is held, is the standard of its prosperity. That 
undoubtedly is the happiest condition of society, where none 
are over-rich, and none extremely poor ; where one is not 
continually offended by those striking contrasts of enormous 
wealth and extreme destitution, which some countries pre- 
sent. That condition of society is undoubtedly above all 
others to be preferred, where the power of bettering our 
condition, is, as far as possible, equally enjoyed by every 
man, and certainly not denied to any one ; and where every 
possible encouragement and facility are given to the exertion 
of this power. It is often a great charity to help our neigh- 
bour ; but the best and wisest of all forms, in which this 
charity can be exercised, is that, when a man helps his 
neighbour to help himself 

If we look at agriculture in a commercial view, and in 
this light English and Scotch agriculture is to be considered, 
its operation upon the condition of the labourers is often 
severe. I have found among the landlords and proprietors 
in England and Scotland, in a large proportion of cases, 
where they farmed their own estates, many examples of the 
most just and kind treatment, in paying their labourers 
liberal wages, in providing for them comfortable cottages, 
and in treating them in the kindest manner in seasons of 
sickness or in old age. But though there must be innumerable 
exceptions, this perhaps cannot be said of tenant farmers. 



SIZE OF FARMS, AND DIVISION OF PROPERTY. 39 

and especially occupiers of large farms, where, in proportion, 
much less labour is performed by human hands, than on 
farms of a smaller size. I shall do no injustice in saying 
that the great object of the tenant farmers, and this, perhaps, 
may grow out of their heavy rents, is to have their labour 
performed at the least possible expense. Beyond this, after 
the work is done, and the wages paid, they take only a slight 
interest in the welfare of their labourers, excepting to guard, 
by every possible means, however severe, against their coming 
upon the poor-rates. The condition of the working people 
in parts of Devonshire and Dorsetshire, as has been estab- 
lished by unquestionable evidence, is truly deplorable. I 
will only add, that if there exists a more wicked, inhuman, 
oppressive, and demoralizing system than that of the gang 
system in Norfolk county, of which I have given a full and 
unquestionable account in another place, where the cottages 
of the poor labourers have been removed from the large 
estates, and the people have been driven into a crowded 
village, and are wholly at the mercy of the farmer or the 
gang-master, I have yet to find it. In physical comforts, 
the condition of the slaves in the southern United States is 
a paradise in comparison with it. I have no hesitation in 
holding up such an atrocious system to public indignation. 
It is said these people are free to choose what they will do. 
That is to say, they may work upon the terms prescribed to 
them or they may die. This is the only freedom of choice 
left to them. There is no alternative or remedy. What 
freedom is this ? Wliat slavery is more galling ? There is 
always a great outcry when Avorkmen combine to raise, or to 
prevent the reduction of, their wages. Should there be no 
remedy against masters who combine to reduce or keep down 
the price of labour? The answer given in all such cases is 
that their rents are high and their taxes heavy ; and there- 
fore labour must be pressed down to the lowest possible 
point. They are in the power of their masters as much as 



40 SIZE OF FARMS, AND DIVISION OF PROPERTY, 

if tliey were their own property. Tlie extreme exactions of 
avarice and the abuse of power follow of course. I shall not 
go farther upon this subject ; but I have only to add, that such 
practices in any are most oppressive, unjust, and inhuman, 
and when farming cannot be pursued without involving such 
wrongs, a just and honest man will abandon it. 

The condition of the French peasantry is wholly different 
from this ; and their evident improvement is greatly owing 
to the law of which we have been speaking. The French 
labourer may not only be a holder, but a proprietor of land. 
This elevates him at once in the social scale, and inspires 
him with that self-respect, which is the most powerful element 
of virtue. The English agricultural labourer looks forward 
in despair ; the French agricultural labourer is cheered by 
the buoyant hope of improving his condition. This stimu- 
lates to industry, frugality, and temperance. The French 
revolution abolished all feudal rights, and entirely changed 
the relation of master and sei"vant. The French people, 
having once got a knowledge of their rights, are not likely 
soon to lose that knowledge. The recollection of the horrors 
of the first revolution, and the suddenness and entireness of 
the second, beyond all question exert a wholesome influence 
upon the government. That influence is likely to be con- 
tinued. The government of France holds the only just 
relation which any government can sustain towards the 
people. They are not the masters, but the servants of the 
people ; endowed with sovereignty, not for their own personal 
aggrandisement and power, but for the welfare of the people 
whom they govern ; and any marked departure from this 
character will be sure to be early rectified by remedies strictly 
popular, and well understood in France, but too hazardous to 
be lightly provoked \ 



' This passage was written some montlis before the Revolution of February, 
1848. I have deemed it best not to alter this or the followinx accounts. 



MEASURES FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 41 



IX. MEASURES OF THE GOVERNMENT FOR THE 
IMPROVEMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

The measures of the government for the advancement of 
agriculture have much to recommend them, if they are 
carried out in an intelligent and faithful manner. 

1. Department of Agriculture. — In the first place, there 
is a department of agriculture, the secretary or minister of 
which, being one of the first men in the kingdom, is expected 
to look after this great interest ; to obtain statistical returns 
of agricultural produce from all parts of the kingdom ; to 
learn what is the condition of the art ; what improvements 
have been made ; what improvements are most required ; 
and what is the condition of the agricultural population, 

2. Statistical Returns. — The statistical returns of the 
produce of France have been recently completed, and show 
a work of immense industry and labour. It is obvious 
that such a work can present only an approach to exact- 
ness ; but even that is of great value ; and it will be 
foimd that some facts have been brought out, in respect to 
the average increase of the crops, which are in the highest 
degree encouraging. These returns have been obtained by 
a direct application to well-informed and confidential indi- 
viduals, in different parts of the country, avIio have made 
their returns to the central bureau in Paris. A great variety 
of subjects have been embraced in them, such as the amount 
of land in cultivation ; the amount of land devoted to dif- 
ferent crops ; the manure applied ; the quantity of seed em- 
ployed, and the average yield. It extends, likewise, to the 
number of persons engaged in agriculture, and the number of 
domestic animals reared or kept in every department, with a 
great variety of agricultural and commercial information, sub- 



42 MEASURES OF THE GOVEENMENT 

sidiary to, and connected with the subject, of a very interest- 
ing character, and of equal utility. This magnificent work 
does the highest honour to the government, and to the per- 
sons employed in its execution. 

8. Inspectors op Agricultural Districts. — The next 
provision made by the government is the division of the 
kingdom into four agricultural districts, to each of which 
an intelligent and experienced agriculturist is appointed, 
as inspector or commissioner, whose duty it is to go through 
his district annually at least, observe carefully its con- 
dition, and report it to the government ; and at the same 
time, in his journeyings, communicate every where advice 
and information, as he may see that they are needed. This 
is certainly an admirable mode of dispensing knowledge and 
exciting emulation '. 

4. Importation of Improved Stock. — The government like- 
wise have imported from other countries some of the most 
valuable animals, such as bulls and stud-horses ; and stationed 
them in different parts of the country, that the farmers may 
avail themselves of the advantages which they offer for the 
improvement of their stock. On account of the large de- 
mands made by government for horses for the cavalry, this 
becomes a matter of great importance. Whether the keeping 
of bulls would not be better left to private enterprise, is a 
question much debated. That which belongs to the public is 
seldom cared for like that which belongs to an individual ; 
but the government have met this objection by disposing of 
their improved animals occasionally at public sales. 



^ At one time several persons were employed by the government to visit 
foreign countries for the purpose of seeing their improvements, gathering 
agricultural information, and bringing home such plants and seeds as were 
likely to be useful to the country. It is proposed by the provisional govern- 
ment to revive this excellent plan. March, 1848. 



FOR THE IMPIiOVEMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 43 

5. Agricultural and Veterinary Schools. — France has 
likewise several agricultural schools, established in diiferent 
parts of the kingdom, of which I shall presently give an 
account, designed to furnish a complete scientific and prac- 
tical education in agriculture. In addition to this they have 
veterinary schools, where comparative anatomy is thoroughly 
studied, and the diseases of all the domestic animals most 
carefully treated. These likewise may be supposed to grow 
in a great measure out of their army, where the medical 
treatment of their horses is obviously of great importance. 

6. Agricultural Societies and Show. — In various parts of 
the country agricultural societies are established, and assisted 
by the government, for the purpose of diffusing information ; 
and these will, in all probability,- extend themselves. A 
society in Paris, composed of some of the first men in the 
kingdom, meets regularly twice a month for the discussion 
of agricultural subjects, for the report of improvements, 
and, at the end of the season, for the bestowal of premiums. 
An agricultural show was undertaken the last year at 
Poissy, the Smithfield of France, where some excellent 
native, and some very good im2:)roved stock, though not to a 
large amount, was exhibited ; and here I saw sheep of the 
very best, and most profitable kind, especially for such a 
country as the United States, where good mutton, and par- 
ticularly fine wool, are in demand. These were pure Merinos 
of a very large size, well-proportioned and fat, and with 
fleeces of an excellent quality. I have never seen animals 
of the kind combining more valuable properties. It is 
intended that these shows, of which this was a first attempt, 
should be continued annually. 

7. An Agricultural Congress. — Previous to this show, an 
Agricultural Congress, composed of more than 800 gentle- 
men interested in agriculture, and sent as deputies from 



44 CONSERVATORY OF ARTS AND TRADES. 

different parts of the country, had been sitting in Paris for 
a fortnight to discuss practical questions in agriculture, and 
likewise political questions bearing upon it ; which was done 
with great ability. At Poissy, the Minister of Agriculture 
distributed premiums of large amount ; and every circum- 
stance indicated an active, an increased, and increasing- 
attention to this great subject. 

8. Conservatory of Arts and Trades. — Paris is, in the 
next place, distinguished by its direct means of scientific in- 
struction. It has what is called a Conservatory of Arts and 
Trades. This is, properly speaking, a school for the indus- 
trial and mechanical classes. Here is a complete collection 
of models or of examples of agricultural buildings and 
implements — to say nothing of other arts — not only of those 
in use in France, but specimens of the best of every descrip- 
tion which are used in foreign countries. Here, under 
accomplished professors, courses of agricultural lectures, or 
rather of chemistry and mechanics as applied to agriculture, 
are regularly given, to which access is entirely gratuitous, 
the professors being supported by the government ; so that 
here is presented to inquisitive minds the best means of 
learning the application of science to agriculture. Perhaps, 
in the science which involves the connexion of chemistry 
with agriculture, no country has made so great advances 
as France, as the labours of Chaptal, Boussingault, Payen, 
and other distinguished men decisively show. If agricultural 
chemistry could make men good farmers, the French should 
take precedence of all others. How far the facts conform to 
this supposition I shall leave to others to judge ; because I 
have no wish to put my head into the lion's cage : though I 
am compelled to say in passing, that the best arable farming 
which I have ever seen, the cleanest, the most exact, appa- 
rently also the most productive and economical, is in coun- 
tries where there is, technically so called, no science, and 



PARIS MARKETS. 45 

implements only of tlie most ordinary description ; I mean 
Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland. I shall take occasion to 
remark upon this fact in another place. 

9. Society for the Improvement of Wool. — Besides the 
Society of Agriculture, which meets in Paris twice every 
month, and is the centre of the correspondence of all the 
agricultural societies of the country, there is likewise a So- 
ciety for the Improvement of Wool, who twice a year bestow 
valuable premiums upon persons who have made the greatest 
advances in the improvement of the fleeces of their flocks. 
This society has its public exhibitions of wool, and has un- 
doubtedly accomplished much good. 



X. PARIS MARKETS. 

1. Corn Market. — Paris concentrates much within itself 
that is extremely interesting to an agriculturist. Its mar- 
kets are in the highest style of convenience, neatness, and 
abundance. The market for the sale of all kinds of grain is 
a circular stone building two stories in height, and 126 feet 
in diameter, surrounded by high galleries for the storage of 
flour, the unground grain being in the centre on the floor, 
and covered in by an iron roof of admirable architectural 
constniction. The building is completely flre-proof The 
grain is always brought to market in sacks, and the building, 
it is said, is capable of containing 10,000 sacks. There are 
to be found here wheat, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, beans, 
peas, lentils, and vetches. Bureaus, or small offices, are 
ranged round the circle on the inside for the factors, or 
salesmen ; and, as in almost every other department of 
business in France, women are as much employed in the 
sale of grain as men ; and there can be no doubt they 
manage with admirable skill and address. Sharp trading 



46 PARIS MARKETS. 

seems often the characteristic of the sex ; excepting only 
where the aifections are concerned. The Corn Exchange 
is held here two or three times a week. 

2. Meat Markets. — The meat markets are of the neatest 
possible description ; but they are scattered about in shops. 
The beef in Paris, in point of fatness, is much inferior to the 
English ; yet it is of a fair quality. The mutton is likewise 
very inferior to the English. Some persons complain of the 
English beef and mutton, especially the Dishley mutton, as 
being much too fat, and therefore attended with great waste. 
Veal in France is not killed until it is full six months old, 
and is of the very finest description. The meat-shops in 
Paris are shut in by doors of iron grating, so as to admit a 
free circulation of air at night, with cloths covering the meat 
to ward oif the dust ; and they are visited every morning by 
the police, and undergo a strict examination, so that, if there 
is any meat of a bad description, or which has remained on 
hand too long, it is at once condemned and seized. The 
butchers in Paris are licensed, and laid under heavy bonds 
to conform to the police regulations ; and the meats and 
other articles brought into Paris are subject to a duty, 
collected at the barriers, which goes towards the improve- 
ments of the city. 

3. Markets for eggs, butter, cheese, vegetables, fruits, 
POULTRY, FISH, &c. — The market of the Innocents \ as it is 
called, is one of the largest in Paris. This market is to 
undergo great alterations, and a very large sum is in reserve 
to build it upon the most extensive and magnificent plan. 
This market comprises not only the great fish market of 
Paris, but also the egg market, the butter and cheese 
markets, the potato market, the onion market, and the 

' Being the site of an old convent or nunnery. 



PARIS MARKETS. 47 

general vegetable and fruit markets. The sellers, witli 
scarcely an exception, are women, very sharp, very busy, 
and of course very talkative. Looking down upon the whole 
area from the magnificent fountain in the centre, it would 
be difficult to find a more gay and animated scene. The 
fountains in Paris are one of its most remarkable features ; 
and no principal market is to be found without its continu- 
ally-flowing fountain. 

The vegetables, butter, eggs, fish, and many other things, 
are always disposed of at auction early in the morning to 
the retail dealers. The vegetables in Paris are excellent. 
Carrots, and turnips, and onions, are not so large as in 
England and the markets of the United States, because the 
French deem the large-sized vegetables not so good for 
eating as the smaller-sized. It is remarkable likewise that 
there is hardly any season of the year when almost any 
description of vegetables may not be found in the markets of 
Paris ; and in the middle of December green peas, asparagus, 
string beans, and strawberries, may be purchased in quantities, 
which shows the perfection to which the art of gardening is 
carried among them. 

The fruits exposed in the markets of Paris are of a superior 
quality, pears especially, for which the French have long 
been celebrated. The St. Michael and the St. Germaine 
pears, which, in the United States, have almost wholly 
failed, from having, as has been supposed, completed their 
period, are here still in perfection, which would seem to 
contradict this theory, and leave some other cause to be 
discovered for the extraordinary failure of these excellent 
fruits. I have not been able to ascertain any thing in 
respect to the culture of any of these articles, which is not 
familiarly known to all cultivators. 

4, Market for Forage. — I have spoken of the grain 
market in Paris ; it has likewise its hay and forage mar- 



48 PARIS MARKETS. 

kets, where extensive slieds for protection against tlie wea- 
ther are furnished. These articles, as in England, are 
sold in small bundles of a fixed weight. I shall, perhaps, 
surjarise some of my American readers if I inform them, 
that hay, in small packets or bundles, is often sold in 
Paris at the groceries. I refer to this fact for an oppor- 
tunity of making a remark, which, hereafter, if it has 
not now, will have some importance in the United States ; 
and that is, that where hay, for example, is bought in such 
small quantities, it is likely to be expended with an extreme 
economy. No observing American comes from the United 
States to Europe, without soon becoming convinced, that 
economy of living is no where so little understood as in his 
own country ; and that for nothing are the Americans more 
distinguished, than for a reckless waste of the means of sub- 
sistence. The refuse of many a family, in the United States, 
even in moderate circumstances, would often support in com- 
fort a poor family in Europe. When persons buy tea by the 
ounce, and wood by the pound, and hay by the handful, it is 
quite obvious that these articles will be expended with far 
more frugality, than where the store is less limited and seems 
inexhaustible. Wliile meanness is contemptible, a rigid 
economy avoiding all waste, is a great virtue. The inhabit- 
ants of the United States enjoy an abundance for which they 
cannot be too grateful ; but which is very little understood 
in Europe, where, with a large portion of the population, 
including many in the middle condition of life, it is a con- 
stant struggle to live, and to bring even their necessary ex- 
penditure within their restricted means ; and where the 
constant inquiry is, not what they want, but what can they 
afford, — not what they will have, but what can they do with- 
out. 

5. Horse Market. — Paris, besides its grain and cattle 
markets, has likewise, weekly, its horse market, for the sale 



THE CULTURE OF FLOWERS. BOTANY. 49 

of horses, mules, and asses, wliere immense numbers of 
every description arc brought, and change hands ; and where 
the morality is probably upon a par Avith that of the trade 
in horses in other parts of the world, of the green-spectacle 
character as exemplified in the Vicar of Wakefield. 

6. Flower Markets. — The flower markets are another ex- 
traordinary feature in Paris. These are held at all seasons 
of the year, in three different parts of the city, twice a week, 
and in the most favourable season comprise a collection of 
flowers and plants as beautiful as the climate admits of It 
is stated, on good authority, that occasionally there are 
exposed in a day, in Paris, for sale in these difierent markets, 
not less than 80,000 pots of flowers, the value of which is 
estimated at full 9000 dollars, or 1800Z. sterling. With the 
strict notions of utility entertained by some persons, such facts 
may seem scarcely compatible-; but, if we may judge that to 
be usefid, which gives us a pure and perfectly innocent plea- 
sure, certainly there is no luxury whatever which should be 
looked upon with more favour. There are distinct markets, 
held likewise at proper seasons, for the sale of trees, orna- 
mental and fruit-trees, and floweiing shrubs and plants, pre- 
senting an extraordinary and beautiful variety. 



XL THE CULTURE OF FLOWERS.— BOTANY. 

Perhaps I have already said in other places as much as my 
readers will bear with patience, of the cultivation of flowers. 
Yet I must crave a further indulgence. I must urge it on 
grounds of utility, on grounds of taste, and, above all, on moral 
grounds. My words will reach many dwellers in the country, 
who, amidst their daily severe labours and toils, are sighing for 
some relaxation, and some refreshment of the soul. They 
want something which shall relieve the dull monotony of 

E 



50 THE CULTURE OF FLOWERS. — BOTANY. 

their daily toil ; sometliing which shall interest their cares, 
their thoughts, their imaginations, I will add, their affections. 
They require that which, so far from wasting, shall invigorate 
their strength. They require a pleasure which shall be 
inexpensive, and easily attainable, and innocent, and which, 
enjoyed to its utmost extent, so far from satiating and ex- 
hausting either the body or mind, shall not weary the former, 
and shall enlarge, recreate, and elevate the latter, and fill it 
with the purest delight. All this is at hand in the cultiva- 
tion of flowers. The taste which leads to it is among the 
most pure and the most innocent which can be indulged, 
and where it does not interfere with imperative duties, is 
unexceptionable. 

I cannot say that, as a science for study, botany is ordi- 
narily presented in a form interesting to general readers. 
The general classificatio» of plants, and the scientific distinc- 
tions which are made between them ; the physiology of plants, 
so far as it is understood, which admits us at once into some 
of the most wonderful and beautiful secrets of nature ; the 
different modes of culture Avhich different plants require ; 
their peculiar adaptation to various soils and climates, so 
strikingly as it displays the benevolent adaptations in the 
works of a wise and omniscient Providence ; the acclimation 
of different plants, and the curious changes which, under such 
acclimation, they undergo, and by which, like many animals, 
they are brought from a savage into a domesticated state ; 
the presence of certain plants in certain localities, found no 
where else, and where their presence would seem indispen- 
sable to render such places habitable to human beings ; the 
economical uses of different plants for food, for clothing, for 
building, for mechanical purposes, for naval purposes, for fuel, 
for colouring, for light ; the medical uses of different plants, 
so extensive as it is found to be in every pharmacopoeia ; the 
infinite variety of fruits not for subsistence merely, but for 
luxury : the uses of plants in the fine arts, for imitation, for 



THE CULTURE OF FLOWERS. — BOTANY. 51 

adornment, and for taste ; the chemical qualities or properties 
of plants in their particular uses, and in their general influ- 
ences upon the atmosphere which we breathe, in the gases 
which they take in, and those which they exhale ; the 
control and influence which human sagacity and power have 
been able to exert over the vegetable world in acclimating 
plants, in propagating them, in fructifying and engraft- 
ing, and changing the different species ; all these matters 
directly involved in the science of botany, render it one 
of the most interesting of studies ; and, even in its pre- 
sent imperfect state, it is the business of years to master 
it. The extensive discoveries, likew^ise, which have been 
made of fossil plants, in particular geological formations, 
which, as compared with present existing species, lead to so 
many curious inductions in regard to the past condition 
of the earth, open to the mind many interesting subjects of 
inquiry. It is as obvious, likewise, that the establishment of 
a common scientific and technical language, by which the 
description of a plant, wherever found, shall be every where 
understood, and the plant, when met with, recognized, is of 
the highest importance. But botany, as it is commonly 
taught in schools, and as it appears in botanical works in 
general use, seems little else than a vocabulary of arbitrary 
and technical terms, in a language not generally understood, 
creates usually but little interest, and is of little practical 
utility. Within my limited knowledge, the botanical work is 
yet to be written, which shall present the subject in that 
natural, plain, instructive, familiar, comprehensive, elevated, — 
I hope I may add, without offence to science, — popular form, 
which would give to rural pursuits and recreations, and to the 
culture of ornamental as well as of useful plants, an interest, 
a utility, a delight, even to humble minds imperfectly 
educated, infinitely beyond what they are now found to have 
with many persons, in other respects of cultivated taste and 
enlarged knowledge. 

E 2 



52 THE CULTURE OF FLOAVERS. — BOTANY. 

But putting aside this view of the subject, in which it 
cannot be expected that the study of botany should 
become general or even frequent, the simple cultivation of 
flowers without any skill or knowledge in technical botany, 
can scarcely be too strongly enjoined upon the dwellers in 
the country. While I would urge it upon the wealthy pro- 
prietor, if there were occasion for it, I would with still more 
earnestness press it upon the small farmer, and even upon 
the cottager and the labourer, who, in the United States, 
if he will, may always have his house and his garden, humble 
as they may be, and, I may add, his acres, to devote, as he 
chooses, to purposes of utility and recreation. 

No farmer, in my opinion, should be without his fruit and 
vegetable garden, to which he should be able to look for a 
large portion of the daily supplies of his table ; for profit, 
as matter of economy, for health, comfort, and luxury ; and 
a part of this, or a portion additional, should be devoted 
to the cultivation of flowers and plants for ornament. I do 
not mean that the great labours of a farm should be inter- 
mitted for the care of the garden, as some persons profess to 
fear that in such case it would be ; but they may ordinarily go 
hand in han^ together, and the one serve in truth to advance 
the other. France is not without such beautiful examples. 
On every well-regulated farm there should be hours of recrea- 
tion, when at least the most severe and harassing labours of 
the farm should be for a while relaxed. I know that there 
are seasons of the year when such a remission could hardly 
be expected. But there are seasons when there is ample 
leisure ; and in almost every household, and on almost every 
farm, there are what may be called supernumerary hands, 
women and children, to whom such cares would always be a 
welcome occupation, and a healthful pastime. 

On grounds even of interest, a proprietor may find upon 
consideration, that he is essentially a gainer by every thing 
which improves the appearance of, or serves to embellish his 



FLORAL EMBELLISHMENTS. .53 

estate. This mav be a small matter in England, where 
estates are held to keep ; but it is worthy of much reflection 
in the United States, where almost all estates seem to be 
held to sell. There may be most expensive embellishments 
which should never be undertaken without being maturely 
considered ; there may be embellishments in very bad taste, 
against which it would be difficult to prescribe any other 
remedy than that which improved education brings with it ; 
there may be embellishments of a costly yet of a perishable 
nature, which certainly are not to be chosen ; but embellish- 
ments planned in good taste, corresponding with the general 
character and uses of the property, greatly improve the value 
of an estate, far beyond their cost. Shade-trees, ornamental 
and flowering shrubs, are always easily attainable ; and may 
be considered as permanent improvements, which give a real 
and durable value to an estate. 

In speaking thus on this subject, among the great variety 
of tastes which I may be expected to encounter, I know there 
are many to whom I cannot look for sympathy. They, I 
hope, will at once turn these pages over, and leave them for 
persons who take an interest in these subjects. These raral 
embellishments are common in Europe ; but they are not 
appreciated, or, if appreciated, they are not yet so general 
as they should be in the United States. I wish they might 
be universal. 

1. The Floral Magnificence of England. — In England 
they prevail every where, and render the country extremely 
beautiful. There is not a country-house without its shade- 
trees, its ornamental hedge-rows, its shrubby avenues, its 
parterres of flowers, its trelHses of vines of the most beautiful 
description ; sometimes covering all the sides and the roofs of 
the houses with their thick matting of foliage, suspending their 
rich tresses over every door-way, climbing every corner, peep- 
ing into every window, and covering it with their graceful 



54 PUBLIC GARDENS. 

drapery as a curtain, and hanging in thick masses of green 
and gold, ifttermingled often with flowers and fruit of the most 
exquisite richness and beauty from the edges of the roof, and 
from every angle and projection, where they can fix their grasp. 
I have seen nothing to surpass the admirable and charming 
diversity, and beauty, and richness, of these embellishments as 
I have found them all over England ; not unfrequently at the 
residences of the lower classes as well as those of the rich and 
noble. I have found often the humble cottage of the humblest 
labourer adorned with vines of unsurpassed luxuriance ; the 
sweet-briar exhaling its delicious odour under the windows, 
and roses, ap.d geraniums, and syringas, and dahlias, disputing 
your passage to the door. These are the petted children of 
his industrious wife and daughters ; and he looks at them 
with honest pride, and drinks in their odours with the sweeter 
relish, because they are trained by hands which disdain no 
useful labour ; and can be enjoyed in all their fragrance 
and beauty without giving pain to a single human being. 
Better than all this, they are to every passing observer the 
outward and infallible indications of the industry, frugality, 
neatness, and good economy, which reign within. 

Wherever circumstances admit of it, every considerable 
country-house in England has likewise its conservatory, in 
which, at least, the female part of the household shelter those 
objects of their care, which are too tender to bear exposure ; 
and find recreation and keep alive the remembrance of the 
summer's glories and magnificence, when winter utters his 
hoarse voice without doors, and commands all that has life to 
retire before his sweeping and icy blast. 

2. The Flower Gardens op Paris. — The Garden of Plants. 
— Paris is not only distinguished for its beautiful flower mar- 
kets, but for its beautiful flower gardens, which may be said 
to be almost unrivalled. Tlie Garden of Plants, so called in 
Paris, in extent, in number and variety of plants, in scientific 



PUBLIC GARDENS. ^ 55 

and instructive arrangement, in the perfect condition in 
which it is kept, and in the extent of its conservatories, is 
probably unequalled. It is not only completely adapted to 
botanical instruction, but likewise to public recreation, 
combining with these objects as perfect a Flora as science 
and taste, aided by the ready jiatronage of the government, 
have been able to collect and maintain. The most useful as 
well as the most ornamental plants may here be found and 
studied in all their aspects and varieties, and in all their 
habits and uses. 

3. The Gardens of the Palaces. — There are magnificent 
flower gardens likewise connected with the national build- 
ings or palaces in Paris and its vicinity, which, with a 
liberality that eminently characterizes the French in all 
their public establishments, are open to the public for 
study, for pleasure, and for recreation ; and in pleasant 
weather are crowded with persons who appreciate and enjoy 
them. In most of these gardens, the scientific as well as 
the familiar name is attached to the plant, together with the 
class to which it belongs, and the country of which it is a 
native. The gardens attached to the palaces of Versailles 
and St. Cloud, and more distant at Fontainbleau, are among 
the great sights of France. They exhibit the most splendid 
triumphs of genius, skill, and taste, in rendering, as far as 
these can do it, the beauties of nature even more beautiful, 
the magnificence of nature even more magnificent ; and 
seem, in their shady avenues and their green lawns, their 
superb trees and their flowers of superlative beauty, in their 
statues exhibiting the triumphs of the sculptor's art, — an art 
all but divine ; and in their splendid fountains, combining, 
with the most extraordinary brilliancy, what is most ex- 
quisite in design and graceful in motion, to rival, if not to 
surpass, the splendid and poetical descriptions of the golden 



56 public gardens and walks. 

4. Rural Embellishments in France, Holland, Belgium, 
Germany, and Italy. — The country in France is very far 
from being as picturesque and beautiful as that of a great 
part of England. The deep verdure of England, owing to 
the constant humidity of its climate, and somewhat to the 
character of its soil, which is adapted to retain the moisture, 
is not to be looked for in France, where the soil is to a great 
extent calcareous, and where the droughts of summer are 
often long and severe. I have already remarked likewise 
that the villages in France wear by no means a rural aspect. 
But France is not without its beautiful country-houses and 
villas, presenting often, in their construction and adorn- 
ment, examples of almost unsurpassed taste ; and none of 
them without the charming embellishments of parks and 
gardens, lawns and fountains, shrubs and flowers. Some of 
the best farms which I have visited, farms of several hundred 
acres in extent, have not been without some of these 
delightful appendages. 

In passing through Holland, among persons whom we 
are sometimes pleased to call the stupid Dutchmen — and, 
in my opinion, there was never a greater misnomer, as I 
shall presently show — one is charmed with the multitude of 
residences, ornamented in the highest degree with shrubs, 
and vines, and flowers of extreme beauty and luxuriance. 
At Brussels, at Leyden, at Utrecht, are botanical gardens, 
supported by public munificence, of great extent, and where 
no pains are spared to cany the culture of plants to the 
highest degree of perfection. At Antwerj), and at the 
Hague, there are public promenades, and gardens, and 
parks, laid out with trees, and shrubs, and flowers, with 
taste and liberality, kept in the neatest manner, and open 
constantly to the recreation and enjoyment of the public. 

The environs of Frankfort on the Rhine may be pronounced 
a region of perfect enchantment. The whole city, certainly 
one of the cleanest an dj handsomest which I have seen, is 



PUBLIC GARDENS AND WALKS. 67 

surrounded by a wide belt of large extent, and furnishing 
not only many walks, but drives for several carriages abreast, 
of trees and flowering shrubs, and flowering plants of the 
greatest variety, combining the richness and glory of the 
vegetable world as far as the climate admits of it. This 
charming promenade is opened always freely to the public 
for health, recreation, and delight. The public, thus freely 
admitted, never dream of defacing a statue, or disturbing a 
fountain, of breaking a shrub, or plucking a flower. Indeed, 
I can almost believe, that the richest fruit might hang there 
untouched — such is the sentiment of propriety in which these 
people have been trained, and the conviction deeply impressed 
upon their minds, that what is intended for the common and 
vmrestricted enjoyment of all, should be protected by com- 
mon consent. In Milan, and Turin, and Florence, and all the 
principal cities of continental Europe, as far as I have seen, 
the same taste for rural embellishments prevails, and the 
same liberality in opening these grounds and gardens to the 
free enjoyment of all. In the neighbourhood of Rome, a 
prince ', one of the rich men of the sovereignty, gives up his 
whole villa, comprising a large extent of the most richly 
ornamented and embellished grounds, to the free enjoyment 
of the public. 

In England, with the exception of the magnificent parks 
of London, which, for their extent, and in some parts for their 
beauty, can scarcely be too much admired, these places are 
not open to the public. The splendid exhibitions of the 
botanical societies can be shared only at an expense quite 
beyond the means of the great mass of the community ; and 
are thus arranged with an evident intention to exclude them. 
If the acquisition of money for the payment of premiums, 
to encourage emulation, be the object, this object would not 
be defeated by admitting the public on succeeding days or 

* Prince Borfthese. 



58 PUBLIC GARDENS AND WALKS. 

on other occasions, freely or for a small fee. The squares in 
London, full as thej are of beautiful shrubs and flowers, are 
nevertheless all kept under lock and key, and the public are 
wholly excluded. I must except from these remarks the 
magnificent grounds of the Duke of Devonshire at Chats- 
worth, to which access is free ; the Arboretum at Derby, 
of which I have spoken in another work, and which 
the liberality of a spirited merchant has expressly conse- 
crated to public use ; the Royal Gardens at Kew, and the 
charming grounds at Hampton Court, near London, which 
are open to the public under proper restrictions. There may 
be many others, which have not come within my knowledge. 
A spirit is evidently growing up in England, which will 
presently show itself in the most ample provision for the 
gratification of the masses. This great people are not want- 
ing in philanthropy ; and though highly conservative in all 
their arrangements, and j)hlegmatic and slow in coming to 
their convictions, are sure to follow them, when they are 
once determined. 

I am aware that most of these squares are private pro- 
perty ; but it would be a noble charity, small to those who 
give, but great to those who receive it, to allow the poorer 
classes to enjoy them, at least at fixed times, and under proper 
restrictions. The admirable police of London would easily 
guard against any irregularity or nuisance ; and, indeed, 
where peojjle are accustomed to such indulgences, no person 
thinks of committing a trespass. I believe the English 
people have as high a sense of honour and justice as any 
people living, where confidence is reposed in them. It is for 
want of this confidence that persons are often led to do 
wrong. No better use can be made of wealth than to 
multiply the rational and innocent pleasures of the poorer 
classes, to improve their taste, and to elevate their characters. 
A philanthropic mind can find no higher gratification than 
in giving pleasure to others ; and the indications of the 



PUBLIC GARDENS AND WALKS. 59 

times strongly show that this use of Avcalth is becoming as 
necessary to its security as it is conducive to its true enjoy- 
ment. 

I must add again, that the parks of London, inchiding 
Kensington Gardens, for extent and beauty, are no where 
surpassed ; and the neatness and order in which the grounds 
and walks are kept, is, in the highest degree, exemplary. The 
government likewise have opened a new park of large extent, 
Victoria Park, in a part of London where the poorest in- 
habitants reside, for their health and recreation ; and are 
fast progressing in its embellishment and improvement. 
They have other plans for providing public grounds for the 
inhabitants, which are as creditable to the liberal views of 
the government, as they arc serviceable to the health, and, I 
will add, to the moral imj^rovement of the population. 

But what are we to say in the United States, where, in 
a country in which the rapid acquisitions of wealth almost 
realize the fables of romance, and where old cities are be- 
coming crowded, and cities and towns are fast multiplying, to 
be filled with the children of industry and toil, there is very 
little or no provision of this kind for the public health and 
recreation ; or for the improvement of the public taste and 
education by ornamental and embellished gardens and 
grounds ? This seems to me a cardinal omission ; and it 
is not a little humiliating, that while, under monarchical 
and despotic governments, the most liberal provision is 
made for these objects, and the freest liberty accorded ; yet 
in a republican countiy, where the people have all the power 
in their own hands, they will do nothing for themselves. It 
requires no great sagacity to foresee, that with our rapidly 
increasing population this improvidence, to use no stronger 
term, will be to be deeply deplored, and when those who 
come after us will learn how much more easy it would have 
been to prevent than to cure an evil or supply an omission. 
This subject is one of great importance, and especially in 



60 PUBLIC GARDENS AND WALKS. 

a country where institutions are in the progress of formation, 
which are to affect the destinies of unborn millions ; and 
where no childish and slavish reverence for antiquity pre- 
vents the most independent inquiry into what is just, what is 
expedient, and what is useful. Too much pains cannot be 
taken, too much attention cannot be given, and scarcely too 
much expense incurred, in providing rational and wholesome 
pleasures and recreations for the poorer, and especially the 
labouring, classes of the community. The rich can always 
find for themselves the means of pleasure and enjoyment. If 
they do not exist near home they can seek them abroad ; 
and they are often so crowded and surfeited with them that 
enjoyment itself becomes almost a toil. It is wholly different 
with the poor and the labouring classes. They are ordinarily 
fixed in their residence, and have little poAver of locomotion ; 
their lives are commonly passed in almost unceasing labour ; 
their residences in general in cities are in the compact and 
most crowded quarters, where ventilation is imperfect, and 
where the cheerful and invigorating light of the sun is often 
shut out, and where consequently strength is more rapidly 
exhausted ; diseases are engendered ; the comfort of living is 
not known ; life itself is abridged ; the decencies of life are 
forgotten or trampled upon ; moral disease and crime follow 
in the rear of physical suffering and privation ; and a gan- 
grene appears upon the social body, spreading through all the 
circulations its disastrous influences. Every effort should be 
made, and all pains should be taken, that these labours may 
be relaxed ; and that some innocent and wholesome re- 
creation should be provided for these children of severe and 
almost unceasing toil. Public gardens, and shaded and orna- 
mental grounds should be established, and every effort be 
made to render them accessible and attractive. These people 
are almost in danger of forgetting that there are green fields, 
and blue skies, and trees which offer a refreshing shade, and 
flowers which combine the most delicious perfumes with the 



PUBLIC GARDENS AND "WALKS. 61 

richest beauties of fonw and colouring', and warm suns, and 
glittering stars, and floating clouds of every form and hue, 
which, in their expansive folds, and in their brilliant and 
gorgeous colourings, seem the fit emblems of that abyss of 
glory, where the Divine Majesty has fixed his throne, and 
into which human presumption has not dared to penetrate. 
I would do all that can be done to bring these people " out 
of darkness into this marvellous light." 

The recreations of the labouring and poorer classes, 
especially in cities, are generally of the lowest character. 
This is particularly the case in England, where large num- 
bers of the labouring population, either in the town or its 
neighbourhood, give themselves up to gross excess. In 
many of the mechanical trades, the workmen, who are 
usually paid ofi" on Saturday night, do not return to their 
employment until Tuesday morning, with their senses stu- 
pified, and, usually, their earnings expended, and their 
families unprovided with bread. From what I have been 
able to observe, it is different in France. The public grounds 
and gardens, of the most beautiful description, are thrown 
open to the public, and, especially on Sunday afternoons, are 
crowded with well-dressed men, women, and children. At 
Versailles, at St. Cloud, in the Champs Elysees, and the 
Garden of Plants, the Garden of the Tuilleries, and of the 
Luxembourg, where not only these beautiful grounds, but 
the public galleries and palaces, are also open, I have seen 
several times, on a Sunday, thousands, tens of thousands, 
twenties of thousands, enjoying the walks, the floAvers, the 
lawns, the shades, the fountains, the statues, the paintings, 
the most beautiful productions of ancient and of modern art. 
Here are persons of every grade in society, and thousands of 
blooming and happy children and young persons ; but not a 
flower is ever plucked, not a twig broken, not a statue 
defaced, simply because every thing is put under the pro- 
tection of their honour. Here is not the slightest irregularity 



62 POPULAK EDUCATION. 

or want of perfectly good manners any where apparent ; no 
crowding, no shouting, no loud talking, no swearing, no 
drinking, and no drunkenness ; and the people at the close 
of the day retire quietly to their own homes, or mingle 
in the evening in some innocent festivity. This has always 
given me unaifected pleasure, and I do not know how, by 
these people, the Sunday afternoon can be more rationally 
spent. 

It is obvious what a gain there must be to public morals, 
whenever we can draw men from pleasures of a low and 
purely sensual character, ruinous alike to health and morals, 
and utterly destructive of all self-respect, and give them a 
taste for pleasures of a purer, and, I may add, a spiritual and 
intellectual character. The pure and simple love of nature, 
so liable to become extinct amidst the harassing cares, and 
labours, and frivolities, and sensual indulgences of city life, is 
among the most wholesome sentiments which the mind can 
cherish. The love of the beautiful, of the curious, of the 
grand and sublime in nature, can never become injuriously 
excessive ; and as it is, in its own character, perfectl}'' 
innocent, so we have reason to thank the Great Author of 
nature, that its resources, and the field of its application, are 
absolutely unbounded and inexhaustible. 

For my own part, I look upon all these establishments as 
one great branch of public education. Men are not in- 
structed merely by books and masters, by schools and set 
lessons, but by every thing which meets the eye and the ear, 
and especially all which meets the eye and the ear directly, 
without the intervention of any other agent. Few persons, 
in even the humblest condition of life, can range through a 
fine and extensive botanical garden, or through a museum of 
natural history in any of its forms, without gathering much 
useful instruction ; but especially without having their 
curiosity excited, some thirst for knowledge awakened and 
stimulated. This being once put upon the scent, will often 



POPULAR EDUCATION. 63 

pursue the cliase with interest and pleasure, and as often 
with eminent success. What is more gratifying to our self- 
love than any triumph in such case ? and what pleasure is 
more innocent, more pure, and more intense oftentimes, than 
the pleasure, under such circumstances, of acquiring know- 
ledge ? Compare with such gratifications the purely sensual 
pleasures and low indulgences which engage a large portion 
of mankind, how infinitely do they transcend them ! The 
one transient and perishable, always stimulating to ex- 
cess, and that excess always pernicious, exhausting to the 
animal vigour, ruinous to health, and but too often the 
blighting, the degradation, and the ruin of the whole mind. 
Not so with the pleasures of refined taste, of intellectual 
progress and attainment. The more knowledge is acquired, 
the more the capacity and facilities of knowledge are in- 
creased. The more the mind is exercised, the stronger it 
becomes. The more the taste for intellectual pleasures is 
cultivated, the less likely is man to become the slave of his 
lower appetites and passions. Then, what a great gain 
will it always prove to the labouring classes, if labour can 
be something more than mere mechanical drudgery and 
toil! What a gain it must be, if, in the midst of almost 
unremitted labour, requiring only a mechanical dexterity, 
which practice soon renders easy, there are resources within 
to alleviate this monotony of toil, or rather to make us less 
sensible to it ; and if, in the intervals of labour, the mind 
finds means of recreation, intellectual, alluring, delightful 
recreation, which draw it away from all painful reflections 
upon what most persons will consider the hardships of a life 
of constant toil ! 

I am most anxious that in cities and in the country 
much should be done — indeed, that every thing should 
be done Avhich can be done — to educate and so to elevate 
the labouring classes. I want that they should be treated, 
not as too often they are treated, as mere animals and 



64 ABATTOIRS OR SLAUGHTERING HOUSES. 

machines, to be used and applied as we have the power 
and inclination to use and apply them ; but as beings who 
have minds as well as bodies — minds destined to be im- 
mortal ; and who should be rendered capable of self-direction. 
I cannot think that their duty would be less faithfully, 
because it would be more intelligently, performed. What- 
ever benefits the humbler classes must essentially benefit 
those above them. In agriculture we have learnt one great 
and important lesson, which seems destined to confer the 
greatest benefits upon the art, that when, as in subsoiling, 
the lower strata are loosened, their superabundant moisture 
drained ofi", and the air admitted, they become prepared to 
be mingled with the surface soil ; and thus the whole is 
enriched, and its productiveness greatly increased : so in 
society, just in proportion as the humbler classes are edu- 
cated, improved, and elevated, the whole mass of society 
is enriched and benefited. 



XII. ABATTOIRS OR SLAUGHTERING HOUSES. 

There are other establishments in Paris Avhich are inti- 
mately connected with agriculture ; and among these the 
abattoirs or great slaughtering houses deserve to be con- 
sidered. There are at least five of these large slaughtering 
establishments for cattle in Paris, just at the barriers of the 
city. No cattle are allowed to be driven through the streets 
of Paris unless it be very late at night, when the streets are 
empty ; and no person is allowed, under any circumstances, 
to slaughter cattle in the city. These abattoirs are enclosed 
by high stone walls, excepting at the entrance, where there 
is a handsome iron paling ; and the space covered by each of 
them embraces some acres. These are magnificent estab- 
lishments. The enclosure of one of them, for example, and 
they are all built upon the same model, though not all of 



ABATTOIRS OR SLAUGHTERING HOUSES. 



fiflAi 



36),«^' 



equal size, is 645 feet in one direction, and 570 in till 
other. I shall take the liberty here of borrowing a detailed 
account of the arrangement of one of them which I have 
repeatedly" visited. In front of it is a small promenade 
planted with ornamental trees ; and the enclosure contains 
twenty-three piles of building. At the entrance are two 
pavilions containing the offices of those persons who have 
the management of the establishment. To the right and left 
of the central court, 438 feet in length by 291 in breadth, 
are four immense slaughter houses, separated by a road 
crossing the enclosure ; they are each 141 feet long by 96 
broad, and include respectively a flagged court, on each side 
of which are eight slaughter houses for the use of the 
butchers, by whom the keys are kept. Each slaughter house 
is lighted and ventilated from arcades in the front walls. 
Above are spacious attics for drying the skins and preparing 
the tallow ; and, to preserve coolness, a considerable pro- 
jection is given to the roofs. Behind these slaughter houses 
are two ranges of sheds containing sheep-pens, and at the 
extremities are stables for about 400 oxen. Each of these 
buildings contains a loft for forage. These masses of build- 
ing form the sides of the court. At the end is a commodious 
watering-place and pens for cattle and sheep, besides two 
detached buildings, each traversed by a broad corridor which 
communicates with four melting houses, below which are 
cellars containing coolers. Beyond these, parallel with the 
outer wall, are two buildings raised on cellars, in which the 
skins are kept, and near them, in front of the entrance, is a 
double reservoir for water, 228 feet in length, built in solid 
masonry, and resting on arches, which form stands for carts. 
There is also a Triperie, or building for washing and boiling 
tripe and calves' feet. 

Cattle and sheep, on coming to Paris, are immediately 
driven to one of the abattoirs, and there kept at the cost of 

r 



66 ABATTOIRS OR SLAUGHTERING HOUSES. 

the butcher. The meat is taken to the shops in the city during 
the night. The slaughtering at one of the abattoirs, for 
example, may be estimated at a weekly average of 400 oxen, 
300 cows, 600 calves, and 2000 sheep. The establishment is 
superintended by a resident inspector of police, and gives 
employment, independently of the butchers and their ser- 
vants, to eighteen individuals with their families. Houses 
for the residence of the workmen and managers are within 
the court-yard, with handsome grass-plats, trees, and a foun- 
tain in the centre. This description gives, however, a very- 
imperfect idea of these truly grand, convenient, and useful 
establishments. The buildings are all of stone, with roofs 
of brick-tile upon iron rafters, so as to be completely fire- 
proof; and the neatness is such that, excepting in the boil- 
ing houses, one is not in the smallest degree offended by any 
noisome odour. Every part of the animal is taken care of 
and turned to some use, and there is no waste of any kind 
whatever. The blood and waste manure are all received into 
cisterns, to be applied to some useful purpose ; and an abun- 
dance of water always at command, enables them to keep the 
slaughtering places, which are neatly paved with flagging- 
stone, entirely clean. The whole is under the immediate 
direction of the city government : and there are so many 
checks, that there is scarcely a chance, as there is no motive, 
for fraud. The salesman finds his animals slaughtered in 
the neatest manner, and the proper returns accurately made. 
Such establishments are most important in their bearing 
upon public health ; and I should most truly rejoice to see 
them taking the place of those private establishments in the 
neighbourhood of our large cities, and in England in the 
large cities themselves, which are odious in all their rela- 
tions, and which often poison the atmosphere to a great 
extent. The public inspection of the establishment by 
disinterested parties prevents the sale of diseased meats. 



ABATTOIRS OR SLAUGHTERING HOUSES. 67 

which there cannot be a doubt is carried to a great extent, 
and with perfect recklessness, in manj private establishments 
in some countries, where they are secure from observation. 
Such establishments as these abattoirs would be greatly for 
the satisfaction, if not the advantage, of the farmers of the 
United States, who, driving or sending their cattle to the 
market, must now, in most cases, resign them to the pur- 
chaser ; and, without any opportunity of seeing them either 
slaughtered or weighed, must rely upon his honesty for a 
true return of the weight ; a reliance not always of the 
surest kind. 

It is curious to remark, in connexion with this subject, the 
slow progress of improvement, and the obstinacy with which 
persons adhere to old customs and usages, however objection- 
able. The abattoirs of Paris have now been established 
more than thirty years ; and yet London, perfectly aware of 
their eminent advantages, and so distinguished for its social 
improvements, and claiming a monopoly of what are called 
the comforts of life, submits to the terrible nuisance of a 
crowded cattle market in the midst of its thickest population, 
to and from which cattle are driven at all times of day and 
night, to the great terror, and often at the peril of life and 
limb, of the passengers. Slaughter houses are to be found in 
all parts of the city, even the most fashionable, into which 
cattle are driven directly through the front doors aiid pas- 
sages of handsome residences ; the Newgate market is com- 
pletely underlaid with subterranean slaughter houses of an 
odious description ; the blood, and much of the animal refuse, 
so valuable in an agricultural point of view, passes into the 
common sewer, either to check the current and produce 
disease, or it goes on with other filth to poison the waters of 
the Thames : and in one of the largest and most populous 
streets in London, for some distance the side-walk is lined 
with slaughter houses, where the killing of the animals is 
open to every passer-by, and where the very gutters, as I 

F 2 



68 ABATTOIRS OR SLAUGHTERING HOUSES. 

have often seen them, are red with blood. The London 
markets have very imperfect protection against the sale of 
diseased meats ; and diseased animals in Smithfield meet 
with a quick disposal at a lower price to persons who 
in various forms disguise the meat, and impose it upon 
the humbler classes. Indeed, in all that concerns the 
cleanness, the preparation, and the economy of human food, 
and the pre-eminent neatness of those who sell as much 
as of the articles which they sell, the French — I sj^eak 
particularly of the Parisians — are within my knowledge, 
excepting only the markets of Philadelphia, without a rival. 
They are, indeed, scarcely approached. No part of the 
animal is lost ; every part which is capable of being con- 
verted into human food, is prepared for use ; and even the 
cold meats, the fragments and remnants of the table, which 
are sold in the markets to the poor, are always presented in 
a clean and inoffensive manner'. 

Besides these establishments for the slaughtering of cattle 
and sheep, there are abattoirs for the slaughtering of swine, 
distinct from these, but upon the same plan. 

I have obsei-ved nothing particular in the mode of killing 
cattle in Paris ; their heads are brought to a ring, and they 
are then stunned Avith an axe, and the throat is cut. I do 
not know that a mode of killing producing less suffering has 
as yet been devised ; but I am not without hope that even 
this mode may be improved on. Wlien we consider the vast 
amount of animal life which the wants and luxuries of man re- 
quire to be daily taken, humanity is greatly concerned in the 

' The Londoners, it seems, are just waking up to the utility and importance 
of establishing abattoirs in the neighbourhood of the city ; though strange to 
say, they have suffered an admirable establishment of this kind at Islington, con- 
veniently situated and excellently arranged, to lie useless and to go to decay. 

Since the above was written, a project for the removal of the Smithfield 
Market has been defeated, and a public dinner been held to celebrate the 
triumph of the successful party. It ought to have been given in one of the 
subterranean slaughter houses of Newgate Market. 



THE FILTH OF PARIS. 69 

diminution of the suiFering attending it. Since Divine Pro- 
vidence has recently revealed to man an inexpensive method 
of suspending sensibility, so that the most painful surgical 
operations are endured Avithout suffering, and even without 
consciousness ; and the first discovery has been succeeded 
by one as effectual, and even more simple and of more 
easy application, I see reason to hope that it may be apj)lied 
to the lower classes of animals, to save them, in the cases 
referred to, the pangs of death ; and thus an immense 
amount of animal suffering be prevented. If there are any 
who regard the subject with indifference, and look upon the 
suggestion as ridiculous or useless, I can only say that with 
such persons I have no sympathy whatever. 

They have a practice in Paris which I have not seen any 
where else. When the skinning of the animal is commenced, 
a large bellows is inserted under the skin, by which it is 
inflated, and becomes much more easily separated from the 
flesh than by the ordinary process of skinning with the 
knife. 



XIII. THE FILTH OF PARIS. 

There remains one establishment to be spoken of, directly 
connected with, and of great importance to, agriculture, as 
well as to comfort and health ; but which, having no other 
than a disagreeable interest to many of my readers, I fore- 
warn them at once to pass it over ; though a French writer 
humorously observes, that " a book written upon assafcetida is 
in itself no more offensive than a book written upon roses." In 
some respects, the habits of the French, both in their houses 
and the streets, are execrable and abominable. No familiarity 
in any degree reconciles a delicate mind to them ; and ex- 
posures are frequently witnessed in the public streets, which 
are absolutely brutal, and which in England (not in Scotland), 



70 THE FILTH OF PARIS. 

and in most parts of the United States, would be regarded as 
indictable. Yet Paris, in other respects, is an eminently 
clean city ; and even in these matters is evidently improving, 
and is, Avith the exception of Milan, Turin, and Genoa, vastly 
in advance of the Italian cities. Rome, Florence, and Naples 
can hardly be considered other than as three great public 
necessaries, where the most sacred places are scarcely free 
from nuisances, which shock all decency and reverence ; 
and the old towns of Edinburgh, and Glasgow, and Dundee, 
may fairly claim an unenviable position in the same rank. 

This subject considered in a philosophical and practical 
view, is of the first importance. It would be altogether a 
false, in truth, a mere affectation of delicacy, to hesitate to 
treat it as its importance demands. In all the arrangements 
of Divine Providence, nothing strikes the reflecting mind with 
more force than the beautiful circle of mutual dependence 
and reciprocity in which every thing proceeds ; so that the 
humble elements perform their part, and the most elevated 
and brilliant can do no more ; and the part of the former is 
as essential to the common well-being as that of the latter. 

Look at a heap of manure, composed of every ofiensive 
substance which can be congregated together, reeking with 
detestable odours, and presenting a mixed mass of objects 
utterly disgusting to the touch, the smell, and the sight. Yet 
this is the food of the vegetable world ; containing all the 
elements of richness, nourishment, health, and beauty. All 
these, the plants know how to separate, to analyze, to digest, 
and appropriate, and with a skill distancing the sagacity of 
science, they will return it purified and sublimated in bread, 
and wine, and oil ; in flowers of exquisite colouring and beauty ; 
in perfumes the most odorous which nature's toilette can 
furnish ; in fruits luscious to the taste ; and, above all, in pro- 
ducts indispensable to life, and full of health and strength. 
The farmer, standing in his barn-yard, knee-deep in its ofien- 
sive accumulations, may proudly say, " Here is the source of 



THE FILTH OF PARIS. 71 

my wealtli ; that whicli has fed mj cattle shall now feed my 
crops ; that which has given fatness to my flocks shall now 
give fatness to my fields." A mysterious power is ever ope- 
rating in every department of nature ; suffering nothing to 
fail of its use ; " gathering up the fragments, that nothing 
be lost ;" and providing for the various wants of the infinitely 
varied forms of life to which existence has been ffiven, and 
from whom, if the Creator should, for one second, withdraw 
his guardian care, the whole must instantly perish. 

The refuse of a city may be considered as of at least five 
different kinds ; first, the ordinary refuse of a house, such as 
fragments of vegetables, remains of food, bones, rags, and a 
thousand miscellaneous and nameless substances ; second, 
the remains of fuel, such as ashes and soot ; third, the refuse 
of different trades, workers in leather, workers in bone, 
workers in horn, soap-boilers, glue manufacturers, workers in 
hair and in wool, sugar refineries, and the innumerable other 
trades always to be found in the busy hive of a city ; fourthly, 
the dung of the domestic animals, cows and horses ; and 
lastly, human ordure or night-soil. I shall say little of some 
other substances which have been used for purposes of ma- 
nure ; but it is well known that many grave-yards have been 
ransacked for the purpose of gathering up their mouldering 
relics, and that many hundreds of tons of human bones have 
been transported from the field of Waterloo to England for 
the purpose of enriching the cultivation. It cannot be 
denied in this case to be a more rational, humane, and, I will 
add. Christian use, than that to which they were put in the 
bloody arena, where they were first deposited. 

In Paris every species of refuse is husbanded in the most 
careful manner. No refuse is allowed to be thrown into the 
streets after a very early hour in the morning, nor until after 
ten o'clock at night. This refuse consists of what may be 
called the house-dirt, and is laid in heaps in front of the 
houses near the gutters. A very numerous class of people, 



72 THE FILTH OF PARIS. 

called cliiffonniers, consisting of as many women as men, witli 
deep baskets on their backs, and a small stick with a hook 
at the end, carefully turn over every one of these heaps, 
selecting from them every article of bone, leather, iron, paper, 
and glass, which are thrown at once into their baskets, and 
being carried to their places of general deposit, are there 
again examined and assorted, and appropriated to any spe- 
cific application for which they may be suited. These per- 
sons appear like a most degraded class ; they inhabit par- 
ticular quarters of the city, and the interior of their habita- 
tions is such as might be expected from their occupation. 
The profession descends in families from father to son, and 
from mother to daughter. They are a most industrious race 
of people ; and many of them may be seen, even at midnight, 
with their lanterns, taking advantage of the first pickings, 
and anticipating the labours of the coming morning ; and 
with the earliest dawn they are sure to be found at their 
tasks. No article of food escapes them ; and they call the 
street their mother, because she often thus literally gives 
them bread. Though their occupation is necessarily dirty, 
yet they are almost always comfortably clad, and are never 
ragged. They never beg, and disdain to be considered ob- 
jects of charity. They are licensed by the city authorities, 
for which some trifling sum is paid, and for which they must 
be recommended for their sobriety and good conduct. They 
have their particular districts assigned them, and are very 
careful to prevent all foreign intrusion. 

The cliiffonniers having done their work, next come the 
sweepers and collectors of dirt. Every inhabitant of Paris is 
required, under a penalty, to have the side-walk in front of 
his place of business or residence carefully swept every morn- 
ing. The sweepers of the streets in Paris are almost univer- 
sally women, who, with long twig or birch-brooms, sweep the 
streets thoroughly, and all the accumulations are taken in 
carts to be transported to the great places of deposit. The 



NIGIIT-SOIL. — POUDRETTE. 78 

women assist as miicli in loading the carts as tlie men. 
These women appear to work extremely hard, carrying always 
a long broom in their hands, and a shovel fastened to their 
backs, to be used as occasion may require. The gutters in 
Paris are washed out every morning by fountains which are 
placed in eveiy street, . and what these sweepers are not able 
to collect for the carts, they are careful to sweep into the 
drains leading into the common sewers. I have looked at 
these people and at the chiifonniers often with great interest ; 
and, filthy and disgusting as their occupation necessarily is, 
I have always felt in my heart a sincere respect for per- 
sons who, poor as they are, would be ashamed to beg ; and 
who, by the severest and most useful labour, are proud to 
obtain for themselves and their families, though a very 
humble, an honest living. All this refuse is transported to 
places appropriated for its deposit, where it remains until 
it is decomposed, and is then sold to the farmers for 
manure. 

XIV. NIGHT-SOIL.— POUDRETTE. 

The disposal of the night-soil in Paris is a different affair, 
and occupies a large class of persons. In the crowded 
parts of London and Paris such an appurtenance to a 
house as an open yard is not always to be looked 
for, and the houses are built in immediate contact with 
each other. The accommodations for the family are neces- 
sarily within doors. In England there are water-closets 
closing with a trap, and of most exemplary neatness. In 
Paris, with some exceptions, they are not water-closets, 
but mere cabinets ; and from habitual neglect, which seems 
too generally to prevail among the middle and lower classes, 
filling the house with a detestable odour. In many of the 
houses in the Scotch cities, and houses not always of an in- 
ferior description, will it be believed, there are no accom- 



74 NIGHT-SOIL. — POUDRETTE. 

modations of this sort within or without doors. The 
refuse of the family used to be thrown from the windows 
at night, not always to the perfect safety of the unwary 
passenger, and is now commonly carried into the gutters 
in front of the houses, after ten o'clock at night, to be taken 
up by the night-carts in passing. Can it be surprising that 
fever and disease annually remove a large portion of the 
population of such places ? 

In London this refuse passes off into the common sewer \ 
and from thence mixes with the water of the Thames. It is 
calculated that this refuse, which may be said to be worse 
than lost, would be sufficient to manure annually more than 
a million acres of land, if it could be applied. I have in 
another place referred to an association . formed in London, 
with an enormous capital, for the purpose of applying the 
liquid portions of it ; but the progress as yet made does not 
warrant any public report. The passage of this fecal matter 
into the sewers does not remove all offence ; for in London 
the odour from the traps or ventilators of the sewers, which 
are necessarily frequent, is in warm weather disagreeable and 
odious. Though the habits of the English are eminently 
cleanly, yet, judging from the sanitary reports, the condition 
of things in some of the poorer districts of London, and in 
several of their manufacturing towns, is most objectionable and 
degrading ". Paris, in some respects, then, has the advantage 



^ The extent of these sewers may be judged of from the fact, that one day in 
London I saw a man emerging from an opening in Hay Street, near Berkeley 
Square, with a bunch of candles in his hand, who told me he had travelled 
seven miles under ground. The sewers are about five feet in height, and of a 
proportional width, being the segment of an oval with the bottom cut off, 
thus O. This probably was an exaggeration ; but it must require a good deal 
of courage to have ventured even half that distauce alone, although it is an 
undoubted fact, that there are many persons in the habit of daily exploring the 
sewers, where they sometimes find prizes of value. What an employment ! 

2 The worst parts of Paris and the worst habits of Paris are, however, 
entirely distanced by some parts of London, eminently cleanly as it is in many 



NIGHT-SOIL. — POUDRETTE. 75 

of London, and, indeed, of every city wliicli I have been in, 
excepting the cities of Holland and Belgium — in that all 
this fecal matter is saved, and certainly with less offence in 
its removal than could have been supposed possible. 

In general it is removed by what is called the atmos- 
pheric process. The cart is placed at the door in the street ; 
a long leather hose is extended from the vault to the cart ; 
and, the air being exhausted, the fecal matter in a semi-fluid 
state passes directly into the cart. The whole aifair is 
managed, not absolutely Avithout oflence — for that at jiresent 
seems impossible — but certainly without any oflence which 
is avoidable. The men bring their working- dresses with 
them, so as never to appear in the streets otherwise than in 
decent attire. The vehicle in which this fecal matter is 
conveyed, is a very large, tight cask, or sometimes several 
tight casks : the horses, harnesses, and the whole equipment 
are of a neat and perfect description ; and in most cases 
would never be detected by a stranger, if either he were not 
informed of their uses, or did not read the inscription of the 
objects to which they are devoted on some part of the 



other parts. Hear what the philanthropic Lord Ashley has recently said in his 
place in parliament : — 

" He should read a description of a court which he had witnessed himself. 
It was in such places that a large mass of the community dwelt. In one of 
these courts there were three privies to 300 persons ; in another there were 
two to 200 people. This was a statement made by a medical man. In a place 
where these public privies existed, scenes of the most shocking character were 
of daily occurrence. It would scarcely be believed, that these public privies 
often stood opposite the doors of the houses ; modesty and decency were almost 
altogether impossible." — Times of June 7, 1848. 

The " cabinets d'aisance sans odeur," which are to be found in many parts 
of Paris, and which are always kept in the most cleanly condition, but which 
are often spoken of with sneers by strangers visiting Paris, are to be highly 
commended as useful and important public accommodations. An eminent 
medical gentleman once assured me, " that a very large portion of the worst 
maladies which he had to deal with, arose out of improper neglect in this 
matter, growing out of inconvenient arrangements or a false delicacy, which 
should be got rid of." 



76 NIGHT-SOIL. — POUDRETTE. 

vehicle. In no case is any offensive matter left in the 
streets, or permitted to escape from the carts, until it arrives 
at its place of deposit. 

The carts arrive at their destination before, or as soon 
as day-light. This place is near one of the barriers of the 
city. The fecal matter is here suffered to run out upon an 
extensive piece of ground, flattened and made hard like the 
bottom of a brick-yard. Here it remains until the liquid 
portion runs off into an artificial basin, from whence as much 
as is wanted is taken for the purpose of extracting the sal- 
ammoniac. The rest escapes into the canal in the neighbour- 
hood. The solid matter becoming dry is then broken up, 
turned over, re-broken ; and this process goes on until it 
becomes so dry as to be easily reduced to powder, when it is 
laid up in heaps of which immense masses are accumulated. 
It is thus almost entirely deprived of odour, and may be 
handled without offence. In this condition it is sold to the 
farmers, who remove it either in open carts, or in bags or 
casks. I cannot say that this place (which occupies several 
acres of ground), or its neighbourhood, is without offence ; 
but it is inhabited chiefly by persons who get their living by 
the operation ; and to whom, therefore, the offence is not so 
great. After the first drying, when it forms a thick and 
hard crust, it is broken up by the plough, and afterwards by 
the harrow ; and this operation is necessarily several times 
repeated. In the end it passes through a thorough sifting. 
As many women are employed here as men ; and the 
labourers are principally of the lower order of Grermans, 
whose industry and acquisitiveness are usually remarkable. 
A great many children are likewise employed ; and the 
search after prizes of value is always animated. As to the 
healthiness of the occupation, its early processes are un- 
doubtedly perilous both to health and life ; and many a 
poor fellow perishes in the vaults, into which they are some- 
times compelled to descend ; but I found an overseer on the 



NIGHT-SOIL. — POUDRETTE. 77 

spot, who said lie had been constantly employed there for 
eighteen years, and had never suffered even a day's illness. 

The municipal arrangements in Paris seem to me, in 
various matters, commendable. For effecting the process 
spoken of, so important and indispensable to health, comfort, 
and even life, there are three contractors, men of large 
capital, who take the whole enterprize of cleansing the city 
in this matter upon themselves. The city is divided into 
four districts. The contractors are laid under heavy bonds 
to provide horses, carts, and workmen ; never to remit the 
work excepting one night in seven, Sunday night, and they 
are paid so much by the cubic foot, by the owner of the 
house whose vaults they cleanse. They do not begin their 
work before eleven o'clock at night, and they must leave the 
city before day -light. The men are divided into parties of 
five ; and each man has his particular office, and is known 
among them by a distinct name. The corporal or overseer, 
constituting one of the five, directs the whole operation, and 
gives his aid as occasion may require. The man, whose 
duty it is to descend into the vault, always does it at the 
risk of his life, from suffocation. They are liable also to 
suffer from an inflammation of the eyes, which makes them 
blind for several days, in which they frequently weep blood, 
and which is attended with extreme suffering. The whole 
number of persons employed in these services in Paris, ex- 
ceeds two hundred. They constitute a people by themselves, 
and the employment goes down from father to son. Their 
wages are from twenty to twenty-five francs a week, or from 
four to five dollars, or one pound sterling. A notice is given 
at the proper office, by the owner of a tenement, that his 
vault requires to be emptied, and the service is immediately 
attended to. 

I have gone thus at large into these homely details for 
several reasons ; first, for their bearing upon agriculture ; for, 
perhaps, no manure is so vakiable. "We send ship after ship 



/O NIGHT-SOIL. — POUDRETTE. 

into the Pacific Ocean, to bring home that for which we have 
a substitute equal, if not superior in efficacy, at our own 
doors. Secondly, because the information how the removal 
of this matter is performed in -such a city as Paris, may be 
of use in other cities, where it is generally left to private 
enterprize, with very imperfect apparatus and preparations ; 
and is often slovenly and ofiensively performed. I confess 
that, in the third place, I have been moved by some moral 
reasons, because I would lose no favourable opportunity of 
calling the attention of the richer and more favoured classes 
in society, to the condition of their more humble brethren in 
many departments of human industry, upon the results of 
whose labour they live ; and who peril their lives, and pass 
their days and nights in the most humble, the most severe, 
and often the most odious and disgusting services, to secure 
the health a nd comfort of those elevated above them ; and 
receive in the form of compensation for labours so perilous and 
offensive, that which serves only as a bare subsistence. It is 
said, that the wives and children of the men who perform the 
most dangerous part of these services, when their husbands 
and fathers leave home at night, show the same anxiety for 
their safe return, as if they were leaving upon some perilous 
voyage by sea. 

Various methods have been tried for the purpose of dis- 
infecting this substance ; but, either from their inefficacy 
or the difficulty and expense of procuring them, are seldom 
used. Quick-lime thrown into the vaults is said to destroy 
the best parts of the manure ; but, by many persons, however, 
it is greatly approved. Charcoal-dust, burnt tan, peat -ashes, 
the mud from the bottom of rivers or ditches burnt or dried 
in ovens, have all been used, as it is reported, with success ; 
and may be recommended not only as disinfectants, but as 
useful additions. 

The Parisian arrangements are far from being perfect. In 
London at present every thing of this sort is lost. In Paris 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 79 

only the solid portion of the excrementitious matter is saved 
for manure, whereas there is no doubt that the urine is of 
far greater comparative value than the solid portions. Vari- 
ous attempts have been made to save this in such a form that 
it might be easily transported ; and in London, manures are 
sold under the name of urates, which are only urine com- 
bined with plaster or gypsum : but the qviantity of urine 
taken up in such cases is so small, compared with the weight 
or bulk of the article, that in this respect it is considered 
of little efficacy or value. Chemistry would perform an im- 
mense service for agriculture, if it could discover a means of 
combining this substance in some portable form, and in Avliich 
its efficacy might be preserved. One of the circumstances 
constituting the great value of guano, and of the dung of 
birds, separate from the particular food on which they 
live, is that their excrements being voided under one form 
only, the element of urea is inseparably combined with the 
other matters. 

I shall not trouble my readers at present further on this 
subject ; in which I can only say I have been anxious to give 
no offence even to the most delicate mind, and must claim 
their indulgence if I have not succeeded. I shall now proceed 
to other topics. 



XV. AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

The subject of agricultural education has received much 
attention in France ; that attention is increasing, and new 
institutions are growing up, to which the Government 
promptly lend their aid. The subject is of so much import- 
ance, that I deem it proper to give an enlarged account of 
the leading establishment for this object which have come 
under my notice. 

What is intended by agricultural education should first be 



80 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

determined : and I beg my i-eaders to go with me in settling 
our notions on tliis subject. 

There are in Europe, and I believe in the United States 
also, two strong parties in agriculture ; the one, who are all 
for practice, and who disdain the aid of science ; and the 
other party, who rely upon science, technically so called, to 
solve all the operations in agriculture, and to furnish theo- 
retical principles upon which they may be conducted with 
confidence and certainty. These parties, like the ultras of 
all sects, are in general in bad humour with each other, for 
which there seems no just cause. By a better understand- 
ing of each other's views, they might co-operate to the 
essential interests of the object which they profess to 
seek. 

What are the claims of practice ? One would suppose from 
the observations of some men, that agriculture is a modern 
art, a recent discovery, in which every thing is to be learnt, 
and of which mankind have now, for the first time, to acquire 
the true principles. Such flippancy as this can only grow 
out of egregious ignorance or self-conceit. The agricultural 
art is coeval with the human race. It has always been prac- 
tised, at least as far as human history extends. It may be 
pronounced the only universal art ; and it has been matter 
of attention, inquiry, and experiment from the beginning 
and always. Nations, indeed, whom we are pleased to call 
semi-civilized, such as the Chinese, for example, have carried 
the art to a high degree of perfection, as is shown in 
their power of supporting an immense population on their 
own soil. The agriculture of every civilized country is the 
growth not of years but of centuries ; and the peculiarities 
which mark the agriculture of diiferent countries, may be 
traced to their peculiarities of soil or climate, and the local 
habits, customs, or necessities of their inhabitants. Expe- 
rience is the sure foundation of knowledge and skill. That 
which has been suggested and confirmed by repeated trials, 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 81 

and always with the same results, may be considered as 
established ; and, with or without any other reason, may be 
safely taken as the foundation of practice. The general 
practice of agriculture in all countries rests upon such 
grounds as these, upon successive trials, upon observations 
repeated over and over again, upon results which have been 
determined for years and centuries. It would be the height 
of folly to disregard these lessons. It is often said, by way 
of reproach, of the farming community, that they never de- 
part from the established track, and that they do only as 
their fathers did before them. So far from considering this 
as a reproach, it should be regarded as evidence of the 
soundness and wisdom of their judgment. The presumption 
is always in favour of that which has been long pursued. It 
would be absurd to attempt the study of any art or science, 
without first ascertaining what is already known and deter- 
mined. It would be folly to discard truths and principles 
which long experience has established ; and a still greater 
folly to exchange that which has been found to answer, for 
that which is as yet untried, and whose success or certainty 
is consequently matter of doubt. Experience is of all other 
teachers the most to be relied on in every practical art. It 
is wise to adhere to practices which our fathers adhered to, 
provided those practices were successful- ; and it is ridiculous 
to assume, that practices which have prevailed for centuries 
have not always much to recommend them. 

Then, on the other hand, to whatever respect long esta- 
blished practices may be entitled, it is extreme stupidity and 
bigotiy to reject improvements which may oifer themselves ; 
or to suppose that we have even approached perfection in 
any thing ; or to suffer any reverence for what has been done, 
sanctioned though it may be by the highest antiquity, to 
stand in the way of further progress. 

Agriculture may be considered in two respects as a science ; 
first, as a science of facts ; and next, as a science of principles. 

G 



82 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

The practice of agriculture, wherever it is skilful and success- 
ful, though pursued, as it may be, by persons in other matters 
ignorant and uneducated, is founded upon the knowledge of 
a vast variety and mass of facts, which long practice, the 
practice of centuries, has ascertained, developed, and con- 
firmed. These facts refer to the climate of a country, the 
nature of the soil or of diiferent soils, the crops to be grown, 
the rotation of crops, the modes of culture, the application 
of manures, the care and uses of the crops, and a variety 
of other like matters. These constitute the science of 
agricultural practice. Now any man above the condition 
of a mere labourer, any man having any pretensions to the 
character of a farmer, must know these facts ; and the more 
he knows of them, the more skilful and successful is his 
practice likely to be. He may gather them from reading, 
from conversation, from tradition, or from observing the 
practices of others. It would be extreme folly to reject these 
aids ; and to suppose that they must all be gathered from 
his own practice and experience. The life of a single man is 
not long enough to establish all the practical truths relating 
to these matters, many of which can have been determined 
only after years of experience. This is agricultural science ; 
and the more a man has of this knowledge — the more 
scientific he is in this respect, so much the more improved 
and productive is likely to be his agriculture. Let him 
gather this knowledge from any and every source, where it 
is likely to be found in an authoritative form ; from books or 
from men, from observation at home and abroad. To refuse 
it, coming in any authentic form, is truly an evidence of in- 
corrigible stupidity ; and I have in my mind's eye many 
men, without any pretensions to literary education, who, 
from their practical famiharity with these subjects, and the 
vast amount of facts which they have accumulated, may bo 
pronounced scientific agriculturists. We are accustomed to 
call them, by way of eminence, practical men ; but their 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 83 

practice grows out of and is regulated by their knowledge ; 
and is successful in proportion as it is suggested and directed 
by this knowledge. 

But there is another kind of knowledge, which may be 
called, by way of distinction, the science of principles. The 
highest of all occupations, to which the human mind can 
devote itself, is to study " the causes of things." To an 
inquisitive mind, the regularity of certain effects and results, 
their constancy and uniformity, show that they are the 
subjects of certain general laws, established every where 
throughout the material creation. Such a mind desires to 
know to what extent these laws prevail ; how they operate ; 
by what circumstances they are affected ; and, above all, how 
far they may be controlled or directed by human agency, 
and turned to advantage. Of the great agents in nature, 
man is constantly availing himself; and by these means has 
acquired a power, in respect to which, no human sagacity has 
been able to predict where it shall end. Fire, air, and water, 
are the handmaids of science, and wait to do her pleasure ; 
and more recently, electricity performs miracles at her 
bidding. Within a half century, a new science has sprung 
uj), which, more than any other, professes to investigate the 
phenomena of the material world, and to dive into the nature 
of things. It has accomplished already an infinite amount for 
many of the arts. Why should not agriculture avail itself of 
what it has done, and can do ? 

The intelligent farmer has many subjects of inquiry ; the 
nature of soils, and the differences of different soils, with their 
adaptation to different plants ; the nature of manures, and 
their comparative differences, with their various forms of 
application ; the nature of the products themselves, and their 
adaptation to the pui'poses for which they are used ; the 
breeding of animals, the fattening of animals, the improve- 
ment of races of animals and different species of vegetables ; 
the effects of light, heat, frost, rain, dew, and electricity upon 

G 2 



84 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

vegetation ; and innumerable other subjects connected di- 
rectly with the culture of the earth, are important, and 
beyond all doubt directly practical matters of investigation, 
which it is the immediate province of science to examine, 
and, if possible, determine. Why should not the intelligent 
farmer seek to avail himself of this aid, and gratefully re- 
ceive it? The mathematician may not be able to hold a 
plough, and yet he may be able, from principles of science, 
to direct the artist in the construction of that implement, so 
that it shall perform its work in the best manner, and at the 
least expense of time and power. The chemist may scarcely 
know one plant from another ; and yet, from the investigation 
of the properties of diiferent substances, he may teach the 
famier so to combine his manures, or his materials for 
manure, as to produce the greatest effect. The philosoj)her 
or astronomer may not know a single rope in a ship, he may 
not so much as know the stem from the stern ; and yet, 
without his laborious and abstruse calculations, the most 
skilful navigator would find himself entirely bewildered upon 
the trackless ocean. Science is often flippant and conceited, 
and holds in too little estimation the lessons of experience. 
Practice, on the other hand, with an obstinacy which seems 
almost incorrigible, often disdains the teachings of science, 
and shuts the door upon that light, which might make its path 
more clear, its progress more certain, and its results more 
successful. Here is a gross error on both sides. Science and 
practice should be friends to each other. The most scientific 
man, who has no knowledge of the practice of agriculture, in 
undertaking the management of a farm, is likely to fall into 
serious mistakes, and wholly to fail in his entei'prise. The 
most successful practical farmer, who knows well how things 
should be done, as far as experience has settled that point, 
might derive a great advantage from understanding why 
they should be so done ; and such knowledge leads to a vast 
increase of his power. Will any man pretend that agriculture 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 85 

has readied its maximum? Let us listen to one great fact, 
stated by an eminent French writer. The wheat now grown 
in France supplies with bread a population greater by one 
half than that in the reign of Louis XV. ; yet it does not 
occupy a larger space of ground than it did at that time. 
Indeed, the actual extent of land under cultivation in wheat 
at the present time, is less by at least twenty-three per cent, 
than it was sixty or eighty years ago. So that the agri- 
culture of that time, which occupied in wheat a surface a 
quarter or a third larger than what is occupied in the same 
cultivation at the present day, did not produce more than 
sufficient to supply a population ten or twelve millions less 
than what is supplied at the present time \ This shows an 
immense progress and improvement in agriculture ; and if 
this is not to be credited to science, technically so called, it 
is to be ascribed at least to a more inquisitive and intelligent 
cultivation ; that is to say, to the application of the mind to 
this great art. I desire only that the farmers should have 
their minds awake and open in the study of the great prin- 
ciples of the art by which they live ; and that they should 
be willing to receive, from whatever source it may come, that 
light which is now carrying forward all the other practical 
arts of life — I will not say to perfection, for that may always 
remain beyond the reach of human power, but with a 
rapidity and success which have never been known before. 

1. School at Grignon. — The principal establishment for 
agricultural education is at Grignon, about twenty miles from 
Paris. It consists of an estate of 474 hectares, or about 
1200 acres, with a large dwelling-house upon it, — formerly, 
I believe, a royal seat, — and other necessary buildings, which 
have been erected since its endowment. It was ceded by 
the French king, Charles X., for a term of forty years, to a 

• Vide Statistique de Cereales de la France, par M. A. Moreau de Jonnes. 



86 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

society of gentlemen specially interested in agriculture, wlio 
have the management of the institution, and, by private 
subscription, have supplied the funds for conducting it \ The 
government are represented in the management of the estate. 
They provide all the instruction, by paying the salaries of 
the professors and superintendent ; and they support some 
pupils. The pecuniary results for the last few years have 
been favourable ; and all profits go to the support of free 
pupils, or to increasing and extending the benefits of the 
institution, which is capable of accommodating seventy pupils. 
The term of residence is fixed at two years, though it will 
be seen, from the course of instruction adopted, a much 
longer time is requisite to acquire a thorough education in 
the branches prescribed. 

The institution at Grignon is designed to supply instruc- 
tion both in the science and practice of agriculture, and the 
constitution and arrangement of the school seem admirably 
adapted to this end. The students in general are from that 
class in life who depend upon their own exertions for a live- 
lihood. This is as it should be. In the United States we 
have no other class, and, from the present arrangements of 
property, are not likely to have. Long may this wise and 
happy arrangement continue ! In a great portion of Europe, 
a large part of the community are little else than beasts of 
burden. As long as they live, they must carry upon their 
backs those who do not choose to maintain themselves. It 
is a pity they could not put their burden down, and make 



' The sum raised by private subscription amounted to 300,000 francs, or about 
60,000 dollars, or 12,000^. sterling. The rents paid to the government for the 
estate are the same as were paid by the farmers who previously held it. The 
substantial or permanent improvements upon the estate are estimated by a 
commissioner once in five years, and are to go, at the end of the lease, in 
acquittal of the rent. The money subscribed by individuals was given to the 
institution. On this capital, employed on the farm, an interest of sixteen per 
cent, has been realized, which goes, as above stated, to the benefit of the 
institution. 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 87 

tliem " go themselves." Their doom, however, is fixed ; and 
with the present distribution of political power, and the 
present moss-covered institutions respecting property, there 
is little chance of an alteration. In England and in France 
a class exists of which at present, in the free portion of the 
United States, we know nothing ; and it may he some time 
before they are required. These are the persons who manage 
the estates of large proprietors ; who in England are called 
bailiffs or stewards ; in France, agricultural engineers. 
Grignon may be said to be particularly designed to educate 
this useful class. At the same time, there are among the 
pupils several who seek this education for the management 
of their own estates ; and these agricultural engineers are 
themselves, without doubt, hoping presently to become pro- 
prietors. In the south of France, land is held generally 
under what is called the mettayer system, or what is known 
in the United States as taking land upon shares. After 
certain deductions, the half of the produce is returned to the 
proprietor as the rent of the land. In either case such 
education must be highly valuable. In the case of a tenant, 
that he may be able to obtain the best return from the land, 
and, in the case of the proprietor, that he may know what to 
require, and how properly to direct the management of his 
estate. 

The term of residence at Grignon is fixed at two years ; 
but the pupil remains three months after his studies are 
completed, in order to digest and draw up the entire manage- 
ment of an estate, and describe its details in every depart- 
ment. 

The students are divided into classes denominated inter- 
nals and externals, or resident and non-resident. The former 
reside entirely in the house, where they are lodged and 
boarded, and pay about 800 francs, or 32 pounds, or 160 
dollars, per year. The externals, or non-residents, provide 
for themselves, or lodge at the houses of the neighbouring 



88 AaKICULTUEA-L EDUCATION. 

farmers, and pay a very small amount for tlieir instruction. 
This arrangement is particularly designed to benefit poor 
scholars. Both classes are equally subject to the general 
discipline and rules of the institution ; and are alike engaged 
in the same works and studies. 

There are lectures every day in the week. At the com- 
mencement of each lecture, the professor examines the pupils 
on the subject of the preceding lecture ; and they are 
required 'often to take notes, and present a written report of 
the lecture. Besides the professors, there are two monitors, 
who have been educated at the school, who labour with the 
pupils in the fields. They are expected, and it is tlieir duty, 
to question the pupils on the subjects which have been 
treated in the lectures ; to show their application ; to illus- 
trate what may have been obscure ; and, in short, to leave 
nothing unexplained which is liable to misunderstanding or 
error. There are two public examinations annually, in 
which the scholars are subjected to a rigorous questioning in 
what they have been taught. If, at the end of two years, 
their conduct has been approved, and their examination is 
met successfully, they receive a diploma from the institution. 

They are not only employed in the general work of the 
farm, but particular portions of land are assigned to indi- 
viduals, which they manage as they please, and cultivate 
with their own hands ; they pay the rent and expenses of 
manure and team, and receive the product or its value from 
the institution. Certain of them are appointed in turn to 
take care of the different departments of the farm for a 
length of time — such as the hog establishment, the sheep 
establishment, the cattle, the horses, the implements, &c. &c. 
They have likewise adopted a practice, which seems much to 
be commended — that of employing workmen, shepherds, 
cow-herds, &c., from foreign countries ; as, for example, from 
Belgium and Switzerland, that they may in this way become 
acquainted with the best practices in those countries. 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. • 89 

The time is thus divided and arranged among them : — 
they rise at four o'clock in summer, and at half-past four in 
winter. They go immediately into the stables to assist in 
the feeding, cleaning, and harnessing of the teams, and the 
general care of the live stock, according to their respective 
assignments. At half- past five they take a light breakfast ; 
at six o'clock they go into the halls of study, and here they 
remain until eleven o'clock ; at half-past six they attend a 
lecture, or course of instruction, which occupies them until 
eight o'clock ; at half-past eight they are occupied in reading 
or in making notes of the lectures which they have heard, 
and the monitors before spoken of are present to render 
them any assistance required ; at half-past nine o'clock 
there is another lecture or course of instruction for both 
sections, which occupies them until eleven, when they take 
their second or principal breakfast. From noon until five 
o'clock, the pupils are occupied in labour or practical opera- 
tions. The j)rofessors, from time to time, take a section, and 
employ them in land-surveying, in drawing plans, and in 
levellings ; others are occupied in mineralogical or in bota- 
nical excursions, or in inspecting the management of forest 
lands ; others are occupied by their teacher in the practical 
management of farming implements, in the management of 
teams in the field, in sowing, and other general operations of 
husbandry, in a field devoted to these purposes ; and a section, 
to the number of twelve, are every day employed in the 
direct labours of the farm, in ploughing, digging, harrowing, 
&c. &c. They work in company with the best labourers, 
that they may observe and learn their modes of executing 
their work. They are required to be attentive to every 
operation that is performed ; and to present a full report of 
each day's work to the director-general. 

At half-past five in winter, and at six in summer, they 
take their dinner. At seven o'clock in the evening they go 
again into the halls of study. From seven to half-past eight 



90 AGKICULTUKAL EDUCATION. 

o'clock there is another course of instruction, or a repetition 
of what thej have had before. Until nine o'clock they are 
occupied in their journals, or in making notes of their lec- 
tures. At nine o'clock the sleeping rooms are lighted, and 
they retire for the night. 

There are several distinct professorships. The Professor of 
Practical Agriculture gives two courses ; the one written, the 
other oral ; and, like the lecture of a clinical professor at the 
bed-side, it is given in the fields. This professor understands 
not only how a thing should be done, but how to do it ; and 
he can put his hand to every form of agricultural labour, 
such as ploughing, harrowing, sowing, managing the teams, 
feeding the animals, handling every instrument of agriculture, 
buying, selling, &c. In the words of his commission, his ob- 
ject is at the same time to form the eye and the hand ; to 
teach his pupil how to learn ; to command, to direct, and to 
execute. To this end it was necessary to form a complete 
agricultural organization for practice, independent of the ex- 
ercises attached to the departments of the other professors. 
The farm is composed of 

Arable land, about 670 acres. 

Land in wood and plantations ... S65 „ 

Irrigated meadows 35 „ 

Gardens, including vegetable, botani- 
cal, fruit garden, orchards, mulberry 
plantations, osiers, and nurseries . 28 „ 

Ponds and water-courses 15 „ 

Roads and lands in pasture .... 50 „ 

Occupied by buildings 6 „ 

The animals on the farm include 

Animals of draught or labour of differ- 
ent kinds 18 

Oxen for fatting 20 

Cows of different ages and races, and 

different crosses 100 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 91 

Sheep, embracing the different kinds . 1100 
Swine establishment 100 

There are likewise on the establishment workshops or 
manufactories, if so they may be called, — 

For the making- of agricultural instruments ; 

A threshing-house and machine for grain ; 

A dairy room for the manufacture of diiferent kinds of 
cheese and of butter ; 

A magnanerie, or establishment for silk-worms ; 

A stercorary for the manufacture of compost manures. 
To all these various departments the attention of the stu- 
dents is closely called, and they are required to take some 
part in the labours connected with them. 

Besides the farm belonging to the establishment, there is a 
field of one hundred acres devoted exclusively to the pupils, 
and principally to the culture of plants not grown on the 
farm. Here they make experiments in different preparations 
of the soil, and with different manures. 

Every week two scholars, one of the second and one of the 
first year, are appointed to attend particularly to the general 
condition of the farm. Their business is to examine con- 
stantly the whole establishment ; the works that are going 
on in every department ; to look after the woods and the 
plantations ; the gardens ; the horses ; the fatting cattle ; 
the dairy ; the sheep-fold ; the swine ; and the hospital ; 
and to attend to the correspondence and the visitors. This 
service lasts a fortnight, and there is a change every week, 
taking care always that there shall be one scholar of the first 
and one of the second year associated. They attend to all 
the labours on the farm, and to all the communications 
between the principal director and inspectors and the la- 
bourers. In the veterinary or hospital department of the 
establishment, they assist the surgeon in all his visits and 
operations ; take notes of his prescriptions ; make up and 
attend to the administration of his medicines ; and observe 



92 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

particularly the sanitary condition of the stables and build- 
ings, where the live stock, sick or Avell, are kept. 

On Saturday evening, each scholar, to whom this duty has 
been assigned, makes to his fellow-pupils a full verbal report 
of what has been done. This report is transcribed into a 
journal designed for that purpose ; and thus a continued 
history of the entire management of the farm is kept up. 
The whole school is divided into sections or classes of twelve 
each : six of two and six of one year's standing ; and these 
sections are constantly under the direction of the Professor of 
Practical Agriculture. 

As the establishment at Grignon may be considered a 
model agricultural establishment, it may be useful to go 
more into detail in regard to the course of instruction pur- 
sued here. 

Once a week there is an exercise, which embraces every 
thing relating to the management of the teams and the 
implements. 

First, for example, in the different modes of executing any 
work, and using the utensils employed. The harness, the 
collar, the traces, and how attached, the shaft-horse or the 
cattle attached to the load, and the adjustment of the load 
to their backs ; the yoke, the single yoke, the double yoke ; 
the pack-saddle ; the harnessing of a saddle-horse ; the team 
for ploughing ; the team for harrowing ; the team for drawing 
loads ; the team for waggons and for carriages with all their 
appurtenances': every one of these matters is to be practi- 
cally understood, as well as the whole management of the 
team in action. 

In ploughing, the turning the furrow, its inclination, its 
breadth and depth ; the laying out of fields ; the manage- 
ment of large and small fields ; how to make the first 
furrow, and to finish the last furrow ; to lay the land flat, to 
break it up in clods ; to plough it at a certain angle, to lay 
the land in curved furrows: these are all considered, and 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 93 

make part of tlie instruction given. The preparation, equip- 
ment, and use of every agricultural implement — sucli as 
ploughs, harrows, rollers, scarifiers, cultivators, sowing ma- 
chines, trenching machines ; the practice of sowing, the 
diiferent modes of sowing, whether broadcast, by dibble, or 
in drills ; the application of manure both as to time, mode, 
quantity, and preparation, and the composting of manures, 
are matters of inquiry and practice. 

The cutting of grasses ; the making of hay, and the con- 
struction of stacks ; the harvesting of grain, by the scythe 
or by the sickle ; appendages to the scythe, called commonly 
the cradle ; and the grinding of scythes ; the making of 
sheaves, and of shocks, or stacks ; and the loading and the 
stowing away of grain, are matters to be understood. 

A practical attention is required to every form of service 
on the farm ; in the cow-house ; the horse -stables ; the 
fatting- stalls ; the sheep-fold ; the styes ; the poultiy-yard ; 
the threshing-floor ; the stercorary ; and the store-houses for 
the produce of the farm of every description. The duties in 
this case embrace not merely the observation of hoAv these 
things are done, but the actual doing of them until an expert - 
ness is acquired. 

Leaving the practical department, we come now to the 
course of studies to be pursued. 

For admission into the institution some previous education 
is demanded, and the candidate is subjected to an examina- 
tion before the principal and one of the professors. 

First, he is required to present an essay upon some subject 
assigned to him, that his knowledge of the French language 
and grammar may be ascertained. 

It is necessary, next, that he should be well grounded in 
the four great rules of arithme^tic ; in fractions, vulgar and 
decimal ; in the extraction of the roots ; in the rules of 
proportion and progression ; and in the system of measures 
adopted in France. 



94 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

In geometry, he must be well acquainted with the general 
principles of straight lines and circles, and their various 
combinations ; and with the general measurement of plane 
surfaces. 

In natural philosophy, he must understand the general 
properties of bodies ; and be acquainted with the uses of the 
barometer and thermometer. 

Candidates for admission must bring with them certificates 
of good character and manners, and must be at least eighteen 
years old. They are rigidly held to an attendance upon all 
the courses of instruction at the institution ; and have leave 
of absence only on the application of their parents or guar- 
dians. 

The studies of the first year are begun with a course of 
mathematics. Geometry and trigonometry are made a par- 
ticular subject of attention ; embracing the study of straight 
lines, and circular or curved lines on the same plan ; the 
admeasurement of surfaces ; the use of the compass ; the 
recording of measurements ; the delineation of measure- 
ments ; the surveying of open fields, of woods, of marshes, 
of ponds or lakes ; comparison of ancient land measures 
with those in present use ; the use of the square, the chain, 
and the compass ; the elevation of plans ; the construction 
of scales, and the ordinary divisions of landed properties. 

The study of various plans in any form ; solid measure ; 
conic sections, their principal properties, and their practical 
application ; the theory and practice of levelling ; the 
method of projections and their application ; cubic measure 
of difierent solids, of hewn stones, of rough stones ; the 
measurement of loose or broken stones, of sand, of lands 
excavated, of ground filled in, of stacks, and of heaps of 
manure ; the cubic measure of trees standing, and of felled 
trees, of beams, and every kind of carpenter's work, of fire- 
wood, of walls, arches, and ditches or dikes ; the ascertaining 
of the capacity of carriages, waggons, carts, wheel-barrows, 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 95 

pails, troughs, barrels and casks, basins or ponds, and differ- 
ent vessels in use, and of granaries and barns, and the deter- 
mination of the weights of bodies. To all this is added a full 
course of trigonometry. They are accustomed likewise to 
the familiar use of the scale, of the square, of the compass, 
and of the compasses for delineation, and are often occupied 
in superficial and in profile drawing. 

The next course of instruction embraces embankments, the 
force of earths and liquids, or their pressure, at rest or in 
motion. 

The materials employed in masonry ; their uses and appli- 
cation in building — embracing stones, bricks, lime, sand, mor- 
tars, cements, plaster ; and all the various modes of building. 

The laying of walls for foundations ; the erection of walls ; 
the supports requisite ; and the construction of passages, 
enclosures, and arches ; the different kinds of woods, their 
absolute and relative strength ; their duration, and the 
modes of preserving them ; every kind of carpenter's work ; 
the construction of floors, staircases, scaffoldings, and ex- 
terior supports ; the constructions of roofs, in timber, with 
thatch, rushes, shingles, tiles, slates, zinc, or bitumen ; the 
paving of roads, the formation of barn-floors, with clay or 
composition of bituminous substances which form a hard 
and enduring surface, are subjects of inquiry. 

Next comes instruction in the blacksmith's shop, in the 
use of the forge, and the other implements of the trade ; and 
in the various applications of iron and steel, of copper, lead, 
and zinc. 

They are instructed, likewise, in the manufacture and use 
of leather and cordage ; and in the various details of paint- 
ing and glazing. The prices or cost likewise of all these 
different processes, are, as far as practicable, ascertained ; 
and the modes of estimating such work are explained. 

The next course embraces the elements of natural philo- 
sophy ; and this includes chemistry, geology, and mineralogy. 



96 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

First, the general properties of bodies, their divisibility, 
elasticity, and porosity or absorbent powers ; and the special 
influence of this last circumstance upon the character of an 
arable soil. 

The following are all subjects of study : bodies in the 
mass ; the weight of bodies ; means of determining the 
density of bodies and their specific gravity ; the physical 
properties of the air ; of atmospheric pressure ; and of the 
construction and use of the barometer. 

The study of hydrostatics ; the pressure of liquids in their 
reservoirs, and against dikes and embankments ; hydraulics ; 
capillary attraction ; the use of siphons and pumps. 

The study of heat in all its various phenomena. Its effects 
upon solid and liquid bodies, and the changes which it makes 
in their condition ; the phenomena of fusion, ebullition, and 
evaporation ; of vapours ; of the hygrometer or measurer of 
moisture, and the utility of the instrument ; the conducting 
powers of bodies ; of metals in particular ; of free or radiating 
heat ; application of heat to furnaces or kilns ; laws of cold 
api)lied to bodies ; power of emitting and of absorbing cold ; 
measure of heat ; means of determining the mean tempera- 
ture of any place ; influence of heat and cold upon vegeta- 
tion ; means of preserving certain vegetables from frost ; 
construction and use of the thermometer. 

Meteorology. Explication of the phenomena of dew ; of 
white frosts ; of clouds ; of rain ; of snow ; their various in- 
fluences upon harvest, and the whole subject of climate. 

Study of light. Progress of light in space ; laws of its 
reflection ; laws of its refraction ; action of light upon 
vegetation. The subject of vision. The polarization of 
light ; the explication of the rainbow, and other phenomena 
of light ; the prism. 

Study of electricity. Conductors of electricity ; distribu- 
tion of the electric fluid in nature ; power of the electric rods 
or points ; electricity developed by the contact of bodies ; of 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 97 

galvanic piles ; their construction and uses. Atmospheric 
electricity ; its origin ; the formation of thunder clouds ; 
action of electricity upon vegetation ; of lightning ; of 
thunder ; of hail. 

Chemistry. Simple bodies ; compound bodies ; difference 
between combination and mixture ; atomical attraction ; 
cohesion ; affinity ; what is intended by chemical agents. 
Explanation of the chemical nomenclature, and of chemical 
terms. 

The study of simple bodies. Of oxygen ; its properties ; 
its action upon vegetation, and upon animal life. Nitrogen, 
sulphur, chlorine, carbon, hydrogen ; their action upon 
vegetable and animal substances ; their uses in veterinary 
medicine, and their influence upon vegetation. 
■ The study of compound substances. Chemistry as applied 
to air and water ; their importance in agriculture ; their in- 
fluence upon the action and life of plants and animals ; the 
acids, — the sulphuric, the nitric, the carbonic, the chloric ; 
the alkalis, — lime, soda, potassium, ammonia ; their applica- 
tion in various forms. The salts in chemistry, and their 
various applications and uses ; their importance as consti- 
tuent parts of the soil, or as improvements. 

The subject of marls and of earths, and of various substances 
deemed favourable to vegetation. Under the direction of 
the Professor of Chemistry, the students are taught to make 
analyses of different soils and marls. 

To this is added a course of Mineralogy and Geology. This 
embraces the general properties of minerals ; the physical, 
chemical, and mechanical character of mineral substances the 
most common. 

The study of the distinctive properties and situation of 
those mineral substances which are most extended over the 
globe, and which are the most in use; such, especially, as the 
carbonate of lime ; comprehending stones for building, for the 
making of roads and walls, lime-stones, marbles, sulphate of 

H 



98 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

lime, or plaster of Paris ; and all the variety of mineral sub- 
stances ordinarily found, and of use in agriculture or the 
arts. 

A course of Geology follows this, embracing all the leading 
features of the science, with a special reference to all sub- 
stances or conditions of the soil connected with agricultural 
improvement. 

In this case, the professor makes frequent excursions with 
the pupils, that they may become familiarly acquainted with 
the subjects treated of in the lectures, and see them in their 
proper localities ; so that the great truths of geological science 
may be illustrated by direct and personal observation. 

Next follows a course of instruction in hoi'ticulture, or 
gardening. 

Of the soil ; the surface and the subsoil, and practical con- 
siderations relative to their culture and products. 

Of the climate ; the temperature, the aspect and local con- 
dition of the land in reference to the products cultivated ; the 
amelioration of the soil, and the substances to be used for that 
object, with the modes of their application. 

The various horticultural operations, and implements em- 
ployed ; and manner in which they are to be executed. The 
employment of water in irrigation ; modes of enclosing by 
ditches or walls ; walls for the training of trees ; trellises and 
palings ; and of protections against the wind. 

The different modes of multiplication ; sowing, engrafting 
by cuttings and by layers, and practical illustrations of these 
different processes. The culture of seed -bearing or grain- 
producing plants ; the choice of them ; their planting and 
management ; the harvesting and preservation of the crops. 

Under this head comes the kitchen-garden, and the choice 
of the best esculent vegetables for consumption ; the nursery, 
and the complete management of trees from their first plant- 
ing ; the fruit-garden, considered in all its details ; and the 
flower-garden. 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 99 

The general results of gardening ; tlie employment of hand, 
or spade-labour ; the care, preservation, and consumption of 
the products, and their sale. The gardens at Grignon are 
upon a scale sufficient to supply all practical demonstra- 
tions. 

The next division embraces the botanical garden. Here 
the whole science of botany is treated in its principles, and 
their practical application. The study of vegetable organiza- 
tion, with a full account of the prevailing systems and 
nomenclature of botany, and the classification of plants. 
Vegetable physiology, in all its branches, and vegetable 
anatomy ; comparison of plants in their native and cultivated 
states ; influence of cultivation in developing and improving 
plants ; the propagation of plants in their natural condition, 
or by artificial means ; the subject of rotation, or change of 
crops. 

The practical application of these botanical instructions ; 
and especially in the examination of plants or vegetables 
which may be useful in an economical view. 

The garden of the establishment embraces what is called a 
school of trees ; a school of plants for economical and com- 
mercial purposes ; and a school of plants for common use. 
These are all carefully classed and distinguished by their 
proper names. The pupils are accustomed to be led into the 
gardens by the professor, that his instructions may be fully 
exemplified and confirmed. 

The next branch of science taught at the school is vete- 
rinary surgery and medicine. This embraces a course of 
anatomy and animal physiology. It comprehends a full 
description of all the animal organs ; and demonstrations 
are given from subjects, destroyed or obtained for that pur- 
pose. The functions of the different organs are likewise 
described ; the organs of digestion, respiration, circulation, 
and the organs connected with the continuance of the 
species. 

H 2 



100 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

Every part of tlie animal, external and internal, is shown, 
its name given, its uses explained; its situation in relation to 
the other organs ; the good points, the faults or defects in an 
animal ; the peculiarities of diiferent races of animals, with 
the modes of discriminating among them. 

The choice of animals intended for different services, — as 
in horses, for example, whether for the saddle, the race, the 
chase, the carriage, the road, the waggon, or the plough. 
Next, the treatment of the diseases of animals ; the medi- 
cines in use ; their preparation, and the mode of applying or 
employing them. 

The next subject of instniction embraces a complete 
system of keeping farm accounts and journals, with the 
various books and forms necessary to every department. 

From this the pupil proceeds to what is called rural 
legislation, embracing an account of all the laws which 
affect agricultural property or concerns. 

I shall give a specimen of some of the topics treated of 
in this department. 

The civil rights and duties of a French citizen, and the 
constitution of France. 

Property, moveable or immoveable, or, as denominated 
with us, personal and real ; of the divisions of property ; 
of its use and its obligations. 

Of commons ; of laws relating to forests ; of the rights of 
fishing in rivers ; and of hunting. 

The laws relating to rural police ; to public health ; to 
public security ; to contagious or epidemic diseases. 

The rights of passage of men or animals over the land of 
another ; if any, and what. 

Of crimes. Theft in the fields ; breaking or destruction 
of the instruments of agriculture ; throwing open enclosures ; 
destruction or removal of bounds. Laying waste the crops 
by walking over them ; inundation of fields by the stoppage 
of streams, or the erection of mills. Injury or breaking of 



AaRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 101 

public roads and bridges. Poisoning, killing, or wounding 
animals. 

The duties of countiy magistrates ; guards or justices of 
peace. Of courts of law. 

Of contracts, general and specific. Contracts of sale and 
proliibitory conditions. Of leases of different sorts. Of hiring 
labour ; of the obligations of masters and servants. Of cor- 
porations, and the laws applicable to agricultural associa- 
tions. 

Of deeds, mortgages, bills of exchange, commissions, and 
powers of agency and attorney ; insurance against fire, hail, 
and other hazards. Of the proof of obligations ; written 
proof ; oral testimony ; presumptive evidence ; of oaths. Of 
legal proceedings ; of the seizure of property real or per- 
sonal, and of bail. 

The instruction proceeds under various courses, and I 
have so far given but a limited account of its comprehen- 
siveness, and the variety of subjects which it embraces. 

The study of the different kinds of soil, and of manures, 
with all their applications, and the improvements aimed at, 
take in a wide field. Under the head of soils there are the 
argillaceous, the calcareous, the siliceous, turf-lands, heath- 
lands, volcanic soils, the various subsoils, loam, and humus. 

Under the head of manures, come the excrements of 
animals, all foecal matter, poudrette, urine ; the excrements 
of fowls ; guano ; noir animalisee ; the refuse of sugar- 
refineries ; the relics of animals ; oil-cakes ; the refuse of 
maltings ; tanners'-bark ; bones, hair, and horn ; aquatic 
plants ; green-dressings. 

The application likewise of sand, clay, marl, lime, plaster, 
wood-ashes, turf-ashes, soot, salt ; the waste of various manu- 
factures ; mud and street dirt. 

The plants cultivated for bread ; wheat, rye, barley, oats, 
buck-wheat, millet, rice, and the modes of cultivating them. 



102 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

For forage, — potatoes, beets, turnips, ruta-bagas, carrots, 
articliokes, parsnips, beans, cabbage. 

Lucerne, lupins, sainfoin, common clover, trifolium incar- 
natum, vetches, peas, lentils, and plants for natural meadows 
and for pasturage. 

To these are added, cobra, rape, poppy, mustard white and 
black, hemp, flax, cotton, madder, saffron, woad, hops, to- 
bacco, chicory, teazles. 

The weeds prejudicial to agriculture, and the insects which 
attack the plant while growing, or in the granary or barn. 

The production of milk ; and, as already said, the making 
of butter and cheese. 

The production of wool ; tests of its fineness ; classing of 
wools ; shearing of sheep ; weight of the fleece ; washing of 
wool before or after shearing ; and every particular in refer- 
ence to the subject. 

The fatting of beef, mutton, and pork. Choice of animals 
for this purpose ; nutritive properties of difi'erent kinds of 
food ; in what form to be given ; grains entire or ground ; 
roots cooked or raw, green or dry ; the value of the pulp of 
beet-root after the sugar is expressed ; refuse of the starch 
factories ; of the distillery ; of the brewery ; fatting by pas- 
ture or in stalls ; comparison of the live weight with that of 
the animal when slaughtered. 

Care and management of the various kinds of domestic 
poultry. 

Care and management of bees, with the construction of 
hives. 

Care of silk -worms, and their entire management. 

All these studies are pursued in the first year of the 
course ; and the time is so arranged as to afford the diligent 
pupil an opportunity of meeting his duties, though the 
period is obviously too limited for the course prescribed. 

The second year enjoins the continuance and enlargement 
of these important studies ; the higher branches of mathe- 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 103 

matics and natural philosophy ; an extended knowledge of 
chemistry ; and a thorough acquaintance with mechanics, 
when the scholars Avith their professor visit some of the 
principal machine-shops and factories in Paris, or its environs, 
in order to become practically acquainted with them. 

The students are further instructed in the construction of 
farm-buildings of every description ; in irrigation, in all its 
forms ; in tlie drainage of lands ; in the construction of 
roads ; in every thing relating to farm implements ; and in 
the construction of mills and presses. 

As I have said, organic chemistry is largely pursued with 
the various manufactures to which it is applicable ; and 
animal physiology and comparative anatomy are very fully 
taught. 

These studies are followed by a course of what is called 
agricultural technology. This embraces the manufacture, 
if so it may be called, of lime, of cement, of bricks ; the 
preparations of plaster ; the making of coal by various 
processes ; the making of starch ; the making and purifica- 
tion of vegetable oils ; the making of wines, of vinegar, of 
beer, of alcohol, of sugar from the beet-root, including all 
the improvements which have been introduced into this 
branch of manufacture ; and the pupils, under the direction 
of the professor, are taken to see the various manufac- 
tories of these articles, so far as they are accessible in the 
vicinity. 

The whole subject of forests, of nurseries, of fruit-trees, 
ornamental trees, trees for fuel, trees for mechanical pur- 
poses, are brought under the student's notice. This is a 
great subject in France, where wood has an extraordinary 
value ; where immense extents of ground are devoted 
solely to the cultivation of trees ; and where consequently 
it is most desirable to understand the proper kinds of wood 
to be selected for the purpose in view ; the proper mode of 
forwarding the growth of the trees ; and of removing them 



104 AGRICULTUEAL EDUCATION. 

witliout prejudice to their restoration. Under this head 
comes the culture of 

Trees for fuel. 

Trees for timber. 

Trees for house and ship-building. 

Trees for fruit, including all the varieties adapted to a par- 
ticular climate. 

Trees for their oily matter ; such as olives. 

Trees for their bark ; to be used in tanning, and other 
purposes. 

Trees for their resinous properties ; such as pines. 

Osiers and willows for making baskets. 

Mulberry-trees for the support of silk-worms. 

Next to this comes the culture of vines, and the establish- 
ment and care of a vineyard — a subject of great importance 
in France. 

I have already spoken of the veterinaiy course of instruc- 
tion. This embraces the whole subject of the breeding and 
rearing of animals ; their training, shoeing, and harnessing, 
and entire management. 

Under the head of farm-accounts, the establishment itself 
at Grignon is made an example ; the accounts of which are 
kept most accurately by some of the students, and open to 
the inspection of all. 

A journal of every thing which is done upon the farm is 
made up every night ; and these accounts are fairly trans- 
ferred into a large-book. 

To this is added, a particular account of the labours per- 
formed, and the occupation of each workman on the farm. 

Next, a cash-book, embracing payment and sales, which 
are adjusted every fortnight. 

Next, an account with the house ; charging every article 
supplied or consumed. 

Next, a specific account of each principal department of 
the farm ; such as the dairy, with all its expenses and returns ; 



AGKICULTURAL EDUCATION. 105 

the pork-establishment ; the granary, &c. ; which are all 
balanced every month, so that the exact condition of the 
dej)artment may be known. 

As the students are advanced, more general and enlarged 
views of the various subjects of inquiry are given ; such as, 

The taking of a farm, and the cultivation or management 
to be adojjted. 

The influence of climate and soil. 

The crops to be grown ; and the rotation of crops. 

Agricultural improvements generally. 

The devoting of land to pasturage ; to dairy husbandly ; 
to the raising of animals ; to the fatting of cattle ; to the 
growth of wool ; to the production of grain ; to the raising 
of plants for diiFerent manufacturing purposes ; or to such a 
mixed husbandry as may be suggested by the particular 
locality. 

The use of capital in agriculture ; the mode of letting 
farms ; cash rents ; rents in kind ; rents in service ; laws 
regulating the rights and obligations of real estate ; the con- 
veyance of real estate ; with the various forms of culture in 
large or in small possessions, or on farms of a medium size. 

I have extended, perhaps beyond the patience of my 
reader, the account of the Agricultural School at Grignon, 
and yet have given an imperfect and abridged statement of 
the subject matters of instruction and study at this institu- 
tion. The institution at Grignon may be considered as a 
model establishment ; and a thorough education in the 
various branches referred to, must be, to any young man, an 
important and invaluable acquisition. 

The question comes up. Will such an education make men 
better farmers ? It must be their own fault if it does not. 
There may be some branches of the jjrescribed course, which 
may not appear to have a direct practical bearing ; but there 
is not one without its use ; if not directly, yet indirectly 
subservient to agricultural improvement ; and if not immc- 



106 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

diately applicable to practice, yet intimately connected with 
the agricultural profession, adapted to increase its power, 
utility, and dignity, to elevate and adorn it. 

The commonest workman may perform the servile labours 
upon a farm with far more skill and success than the most 
accomplished scholar. A plain, practical farmer, with little 
education, may better succeed in the management of an 
ordinary farm ; he may obtain better crops ; his animals - 
may be better fatted ; and he may have, at the end of the 
year, more money in his pocket, than another farmer with 
ten times his knowledge, but without his practical skill. 

It is admitted likewise that many men of highly cultivated 
minds, and of what may be called enlarged knowledge in 
agricultural science, have failed in the practical management 
of farms ; and the result of their operations has been loss 
and discouragement. It must be admitted, at the same 
time, that the dunces have as often failed. I believe there is 
no hope of success without some practical knowledge. Men 
of cultivated minds often fail from relying too much upon 
notions purely theoretical, and from a general and almost 
univei'sal prejudice, without any just foundation, that, while 
other arts and sciences have made progress, agriculture has 
made little or no progress, and that the whole system of 
practical agriculture might be improved, or at once altered 
to advantage. This prejudice is obviously unreasonable, 
when we consider that years and centuries have been devoted 
to this art. But such persons do not fail half so often from 
their science, or even from agricultural theories, as they do 
from the want of a business talent, or what is commonly 
called tact. Some men almost always succeed in whatever 
they undertake, as far as success depends on themselves ; 
some men almost always fail. This in general is called 
luck ; but it arises from a peculiar natural gift ; or, in the 
opposite case, from some natural deficiency. Education and 
practice will do much towards improving the faculty, and 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. i07 

somewhat towards compensating its deficiency, where such 
deficiency exists ; but they can never wholly supply its 
place. It consists, as far as I have observed, in a sagacity 
which takes the future always into account with the 
present ; in a sound and comprehensive judgment, which, 
for example, looking into a machine, sees all its various 
parts, with their various relations to each other, and their 
mutual checks and balances ; in a fixedness of resolution, 
which, having determined its object, is not diverted from it 
but by the strongest reasons ; and in an aptitude and facility 
of action or operation that takes advantage of every thing 
which it can beneficially use for its purposes ; always float- 
ing with the current instead of struggling against it ; spreading 
its sails to every even the gentlest favourable breeze ; and 
conforming to the laws of nature, as far as they are ascer- 
tained, instead of attempting, with an ambition and self- 
conceit as idle as presumptuous, to contravene or to alter 
them. Minds, in other respects highly gifted and improved, 
often fail from the want of this tact. But, other circum- 
stances being equal, how can any man who has any intelli- 
gence doubt that knowledge and study will prove as available 
in agriculture as in any other art or science ? 

It would seem idle to argue so obvious a point as this, were it 
not continually called in question; and continually demanded, 
What has science done for agriculture ? It might be sufficient 
to ask in reply. What has ignorance or stupidity done for 
agriculture, or any thing else ? All the improvements which 
are ever made depend upon two things, — inquiry and observa- 
tion. The inquiry into facts, the observation of these facts, 
when ascertained, constitute science. In science, facts are 
all that are of any real value. The more inquiry is extended, 
the more observation becomes exact, so much is our power, 
and so much is the chance of success increased. The savage 
in his canoe, venturing out upon an untried sea without 
compass or chart, may, by mere chance, by favourable winds 



108 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

and currents, reach his desired port ; but how inferior is his 
chance of success, compared with the almost certainty with 
which the experienced and instructed navigator ventures 
ahroad, who brings all the aids and lights which art and 
science proffer him to direct his course ; and who, under 
their guidance, takes his aim daily ; measures his progress ; 
fortifies himself against accidents which may befal him ; and, 
with as much exactness as applies to any thing human, 
reaches his destined port ! It is often asked, What has che- 
mistry done for agriculture ? It has given us theories of 
manures, and analyses of soils and of vegetables, which, to 
say the least, are highly curious and interesting ; and which, 
if experiment should verify them, may lead to important 
results ; it has taught us modes of applying some manures, 
by which their activity becomes more prompt, and their 
efficacy is increased ; it has led to the saving of many 
materials for manure which were before wasted. But admit 
that it has yet accomplished little in comparison of what was 
expected from it, or what it professed itself able to do ; per- 
haps too much was expected ; perhaps it professed an ability 
beyond what it possessed. But an intelligent mind will 
allow that it presents one of the most efficacious means of 
inquiring into and of determining many of the phenomena 
of agriculture, and may ultimately lead to valuable dis- 
coveries. It is true that the most eminent agricultural 
chemist of the day failed in his attempts to furnish a 
manure exactly adapted to the wants of every species of 
crop, and which should give out its nutriment in such 
measure, and at such time, and only in such measure and 
at such times as the crop required. It was a bold at- 
tempt, confidence in which bordered upon credulity, be- 
cause he undertook to control and regulate forces and 
influences which are entirely beyond human reach. If my 
presumption may be excused in attempting to criticise the 
writings of this distinguished individual, to whom science 



AGRTCULTURAL EDUCATION. 109 

is under such great obligations, I must say that one great 
error seems to run through all his writings, which is, in sup- 
loosing that vegetation is a purely mechanical and chemical 
process, which may be explained as any other mechanical or 
chemical process may be explained. It may be so ; but the 
fact remains to be proved. When I see a hundred differ- 
ent plants, differing in form, flower, finiit, duration, and 
nutriment, some of the most wholesome, and some of the 
most poisonous qualities, upon the same square yard of land, 
each preserving perfectly the identity of its species, not in 
any respect commixing with others, and taking only the 
elements which belong to it, and only in the exact proportion 
which it requires, however simple it may prove to be when it 
is explained, as every thing is simple when thoroughly under- 
stood, it does not appear to me that the solution is yet 
approached by chemistry, or by any other science. Yet 
chemical science, from its searching nature, and from what 
it has already accomplished, seems, of ail others, the science 
most likely to solve, if they ever are to be solved, these hidden 
secrets of nature. It is not, however, for the agriculturists of 
France to deny the value of chemistiy, since they are in- 
debted to chemistry for the discovery of sugar in the beet, 
and the means of extracting and fabricating it, which now 
forms with them so large and valuable an article of produc- 
tion and commerce. 

It seems superfluous to add, that all improvements must 
come from the application of the mind to the subject. The 
more the mind is cultivated, the more is man's power over 
nature increased. One science helps another. The more a 
man knows of any one thing, the more likely he is to know 
others, and the more power he has of acquiring other know- 
ledge. The course of education at Grignon is adapted to 
furnish the mind with knowledge of a highly practical cha- 
racter, which in the country there is constant occasion to 
apply. To a man of curious mind, resident in the country. 



110 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

sucli an education may be said to make every object by 
wliicli lie is surrounded alive, and to multiply infinitely liis 
resources of interest and pleasure. It will prevent that stu- 
pidity which the monotony and tranquil character of rural 
pursuits have often a tendency to bring upon the mind, and 
which is sometimes made an objection to them. It will pre- 
vent many low and purely animal pursuits, into which now, 
for want of mental occupation, men in such circumstances 
are liable to indulge ; and it will contribute to elevate and 
adom the pursuits of husbandry, and render it one of the 
most attractive, as all will admit it to be among the most 
useful, moral, and honourable professions. 

2. Veterinary School at Alport. — I must not, in this 
connexion, pass over the veterinary schools of France. 
There are three of these institutions in France, and they 
furnish all the advantages to be expected from such 
establishments. The three veterinary schools established 
by the government of France are at Alfort, Lyons, and 
Toulouse, and comprise 600 students. The average num- 
ber of horses kept on them is 1332 ; viz. 838 stallions, 
127 mares, 212 colts, 99 fillies, and 56 draft horses*. 
The one at Alfort is that which I have had the pleasure 
of inspecting. 

This establishment is beautifully situated on the river 
Seine, near the village of Charenton, about six miles from 
Paris. The buildings for the difierent objects of the insti- 
tution are spacious and well contrived, and the grounds 
sufficiently extensive and judiciously arranged. Like other 
governmental establisliments in France which have come 
under my observation, the institution is upon a grand scale, 
and complete in all its parts. The government of France, in a 
liberal manner, avails itself of the talents of the most com- 

• Statistical Report. 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. Ill 

petent men in every department, and of all the advantages 
which science and art can afford ; and it spares no expense 
in the perfect execution of whatever it undertakes. It adds 
to all this, as is every where to be seen, a refinement of taste 
in the arrangement of the most ordinary subjects, which in- 
creases the expense only in a small degree, which does not 
abstract at all from the solidity and substantial character of 
the work itself ; but relieves that which would otherwise be 
monotonous, if not offensive, and renders often the plainest 
subjects attractive. 

The school at Alfort is designed to furnish a complete 
course of instruction in veterinary medicine and surgery ; 
embracing not horses only, but all the domestic animals. A 
student at his entrance must be Avell versed in the common 
branches of education ; and a full course of instruction 
requires a residence of four years. The number of pupils is 
limited to three hundred. Of these, forty are entirely sup- 
ported by the government. These are educated for the 
army ; and are required not only to become versed in the 
science and practice of veterinary medicine and surgery, but 
likewise in the common, business of a blacksmith's shop, as 
far as it is connected with farriery. Students can be 
admitted only by the nomination or with the consent of one 
of the great officers of government, the minister of commerce 
and agriculture. The expense of board and lodging is about 
fifteen pounds, or eighty dollars a year ; the instruction is 
wholly gratuitous, the professors being supported by the 
government. 

The establishment presents several hospitals or apartments 
for sick horses, cows, and dogs. There are means for con- 
trolling and regulating, as far as possible, the temperature of 
the rooms, and for producing a complete and healthy ventila- 
tion. There are stables where the patients may be kept 
entirely alone, when the case requires it ; and there are 
preparations for giving them, as high as their bodies, a warm 



112 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

batli, which, in cases of diseased limbs or joints, may be of 
great service. There is a large college with dormitories and 
dining rooms for the students ; houses for the professors 
within the enclosure ; rooms for operations upon animals, 
and for anatomical dissections ; a room with a complete 
laboratory for a course of chemical lectures ; a public lecture- 
room or theatre ; and an extensive smithery, with several 
forges fitted up in the best possible manner. There are, 
likewise, several stands, contrived with some ingenuity, for 
confining the feet of horses, that students may make with 
security their first attempts at shoeing, or in which the limb, 
after it has been separated from its lawful owner, may be 
placed for the purj)ose of examination and experiment. 

An extensive suite of apartments presents an admirable, 
and, indeed, an extraordinary museum both of natural and 
artificial anatomical preparations, exhibiting the natural and 
healthy state of the animal constitution ; and, likewise, re- 
markable examples of diseased affections. The perfect ex- 
amples of the anatomy of the horse, the cow, the sheep, the 
hog, and the dog ; in which the muscular integuments, the 
nerves, the blood-vessels, and, indeed, all the parts, are 
separated and preserved, and exhibited, by the extraordinary 
skill of an eminent veterinary surgeon and artist now 
deceased, who occupied the anatomical chair of the institu- 
tion, exhibit wonderful ingenuity in their dissection and 
preservation, and present an interesting and useful study, 
not to the medical students only, but to the most ordinary 
as well as the most profound philosophical observer. I 
have seen no exhibition of the kind of so remarkable a 
character. 

The numerous examples of diseased affections, preserved, as 
far as possible, in their natural state, strongly attract observa- 
tion, and make a powerful appeal to our humanity in show- 
ing how much these poor animals, who minister so essentially 
to our service and pleasures, must suffer without being able 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 113 

to acquaint us with their suife rings ; and how often they are 
probably compelled to do duty, and driven to the hardest 
services by the whip or the spur, in circumstances in which 
a human being would not be able to stand up. A great 
number of calculi or stones, taken from the bladders of horses 
after death, are exhibited, of a large size, and, in some in- 
stances, of a very rough exterior, which must have exces- 
sively irritated and pained the sensitive parts with which 
they came in contact. One of these stones was larger than 
the head of an ordinary man, and weighed, as I was in- 
formed by the attendant, thirty-eight pounds. I am aware 
how severely this account may tax the belief of my readers, 
but I assure them there is no exaggeration, though I should 
have found great difficulty in believing the fact had I not 
seen the stone. It is scarcely possible to overrate the suffer- 
ing which the poor animal must have endured under such 
an infliction '. 

The department for sick dogs, containing boxes for those 
which require confinement, and chains for such as require to 
be kept in the open air, and a cooking apparatus and kitchen 
for the preparation of their food, was spacious, well-arranged, 
and contained a large number of patients. Any sick animals 
may be sent to the establishment, and their board is to be paid 
at a fixed rate of charges ; twelve sous or cents, or sixpence 
per day for a dog ; and fifty sous or cents, or twenty-five 
pence, for a horse, including medicine, advice, and attend- 
ance. In cases of epidemics or murrain prevailing in any of 
the districts of France, the best attendance and advice are 
sent from these schools to assist in the cure, and especially 

1 Facts of this natui-e strongly demonstrate the importance of pure water for 
our brute animals as well as for ourselves. Such diseases are most likely to 
occur in a country where the waters are strongly impregnated with lime. In 
Paris, where of all places which I have seen they appear least demanded by 
any excess of modesty, or even sense of common decency, it is said, that since 
the erection of public urinals along some of the principal streets, the diseases of 
gravel or stone in the human subject have greatly diminished. 

I 



114 . AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

to watch the symptoms and progress of the malady. In 
countries where large standing armies are maintained, and 
where of course there are large bodies of cavalry and artillery 
to be attended upon, as well as waggon-horses for carrying the 
supplies, the importance of veterinary surgery is vastly 
increased ; but in countries where no standing armies exist, 
the number of horses kept for use or pleasure, and of other 
domestic animals, bears a much larger proportion to the 
number of human beings than we should be likely to infer 
without inquiry ; and renders the profession highly important. 
A large and select library belongs to the establishment, 
and a garden for the cultivation of medicinal plants, and 
likewise of the grasses employed in agriculture. A farm is 
likewise attached to the place, on which instruction is given 
in practical agriculture, and numbers of various kinds of 
animals are kept for the purpose of breeding the best, and 
illustrating the eifects of crossing. Some selected animals of 
domestic and of the best foreign breeds, horses, bulls, cows, 
and sheep, are kept for this special object. On one occasion, 
when I visited the institution, there was a public sale of 
bulls of the improved short-horns, which had been raised 
upon the place ; and of some bucks of the best breeds of 
England, the Leicester, the South-down, and others from a 
cross of the Leicester with a large-sized Merino. I saw at 
Grignon the cross also of the South-down with the Merino. 
These crosses presented examples of improved form, of large 
size, and of a great quantity of wool of a good, but not of a 
very fine, quality. These were the result of a first cross ; 
how far it may be successfully continued is not determined. 
Attempts of this kind, to intermix breeds of a decidedly 
difierent constitutional character, as far as my inquiries 
have been extended, have not been satisfactory after a first 
cross. These animals belonged to the Government, and were 
sold, not with a view to profit, but to the general improve- 
ment of the breeds of France. In this excellent mode, the 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 115 

Government provides, in respect to horses, cattle, and slieep, 
for the propagation through the kingdom of the most vahiable 
races. The minimum price was fixed upon the animals as 
thej were brought forward, and they went into the hands of 
those who made the highest advance, and who were required, 
under certain conditions, to keep them for the purposes of 
breeding \ Besides these sales, the best description of horses 
and neat cattle, studs, and bulls, owned by the Government, 
are at the sei-vice of the farmers upon the most liberal tenns, 
for the improvement of their stock. 

In England, the veterinary establishments are maintained 
by private subscription. Perhaps, in general, that which is 
left to private management under the stimulus of personal 
interest is better cared for than that which is wholly public 
property ; but as in this establishment there is no want of 
liberality on the part of the Government, so there seems to 
be no want of fidelity and diligence in accomplishing its 
objects. The students are numerous, and the professors 
eminent for their scientific and practical acquirements. 

I have sj)oken in another place of the veterinary profession, 
and of what great respect a person is worthy, who, with 
talents suited to give him a high rank in any other depart- 
ment of medical science and practice, has the manliness and 
humanity to devote himself to this most humble and yet 
most benevolent service. The fable of Androcles extracting 
the thorn from the foot of the lion, is a beautiful lesson of 
disinterested and amply-requited kindness. The practitioner 
in these cases is not to expect any open expressions of grati- 
tude ; yet one can hardly doubt — indeed, in the canine race 
it is most evident, — that there may exist a deep sense of 
kindness where there is no power of acknowledgment ; but 
such services are sure to find their best reward in a good 
man's own heart. 

' The expense to the Government of supporting the three veterinary schools 
is said to be about 492,000 francs, or 1 00,000 dollars per annum. 

I 2 



116 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

I consider it a duty to lose no favourable occasion of 
protesting against all cnielty to dumb animals, and to speak 
for tliose who have no power to speak for themselves. In 
institutions of this kind, there may be danger of making 
experiments on living and sentient subjects, which are not 
demanded for the high purposes of science. Such experi- 
ments, as far as they are useless or wanton, or as far as 
experiments even of a most important nature are conducted 
with indifference to the suffering of the patients, or with the 
infliction of unnecessary pain, must be regarded as cruel and 
criminal. A dog was shown to us who had been inoculated, 
by way of experiment, with the virus of the hydrophobia. 
The lessons to be drawn from such an experiment may be 
highly important. It is a fact deserving notice, that a 
remedy against one of the most frightful and fatal epidemics 
to which mankind were ever subject — the small-j)ox — has 
been derived from one of the most humble, yet one of the 
most useful, of the domestic animals. Several applications 
have been made here with the sulphuric ether ; and surgical 
operations have been performed upon patients under its 
influence, without any apparent suffering. This discovery 
seems an immense gain to humanity. 

It is always with a degree of alarm that the unpractised 
look at the apparent indifference and insensibility to the 
pain and suffering of their patients, to which familiarity and 
practice seem to bring the most eminent operators in 
surgery ; who, after a long practice, evidently acquire a 
relish for what aj^pears to be the most painful part of their 
duty ; seem to lose the consciousness that they are dealing 
with flesh and blood ; and cut for the stone, or amputate a 
limb, with as much calmness as they would bore a hole in a 
log, or cut off a stick of wood. Perhaps this indifference is 
the very security of that steadiness of hand so essential to 
success. It must require a compassion or humanity of the 
highest order to preserve a delicate sensibility, and resolutely 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 117 

to avoid giving needless pain ; or, under the plea of ad- 
vancing science, making useless and severe experiments 
upon animals, where life has only a pecuniary value, and 
where the wishes or feelings of the subjects of these opera- 
tions cannot ho consulted. Every wanton act of cruelty, or 
the infliction of unnecessary pain upon a dumb animal, is 
a crime ; involving at the same time the grossest meanness ; 
inasmuch as we have them wholly in our power, and know 
them to be incapable of resistance or complaint. 

8. Agricultural Colony at Mettray. — There are two 
other institutions for agricultural education in France, which 
I visited with great interest, and a notice of which will not, I 
hope, be unacceptable ; the one at Mettray, near Tours, 
about 150 miles, the other at Petit Bourg, about twenty 
miles, from Paris. 

Let me say, in passing, that France abounds in philan- 
thropic institutions. There are no public almshouses ; and I 
have met with comparatively few mendicants, excepting blind 
persons, persons incurably lame or deformed, and incapable 
of supporting themselves. I have been much impressed with 
the difference, in this respect, between France, and England, 
Scotland, and Belgium, which three countries, particularly in 
the cities, swarm with beggars ; and Ireland especially, — ^fated, 
wretched, degraded Ireland, — which is scarcely to be placed in 
comparison with any other country. This diiference is, I 
think, in some degree owing to the industry, frugality, simple 
habits, and, above all, temperance of the French country 
people ; virtues in which they are excelled by no people whom 
I have known ; it seems to me only just to add, a general self- 
respect, which leads them to look upon mendicancy, and even 
the reception of charity, as disgraceful. I have no doubt, 
likewise, that the power of acquiring land conduces very much 
to industry and frugality. 

Though there are in France no almshouses or poorhouses 



118 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

established by law, as in Great Britain and the United 
States, it is not to be forgotten, that various parts of the 
country (and Paris especially) abound in them, there are 
hospitals for the reception of the sick, the impotent, the 
insane, the blind, the deaf and dumb, the old and decayed, 
those who have served their country in the army and navy, 
and others labouring under afflictive dispensations of Divine 
Providence. 

I may go further, and say, that I believe, from my own 
observation, there is no country where more is dispensed in 
private charity ; and the poor themselves, as I have seen in 
many instances, seem always ready to share their pit- 
tance with those who are poorer than themselves. I am 
told that this is the consequence of the prevalent religion, 
which places charity or alms-giving among its works of merit. 
I honour the religion, then, for the good which it does, and 
content myself with recommending to those who profess a 
different faith, to read again, at their leisure, the beautiful 
parable of the good Samaritan. 

The colony at Mettray was founded in the spirit of the 
good Samaritan, which succours the wounded and forsaken 
traveller by the way-side, takes him home, and there nourishes 
and cherishes him. This establishment grew out of the 
compassion of two gentlemen of high rank and fortune, who 
were moved to essay what could be done for the rescue of 
unfortunate, condemned, and vagabond boys, to save them if 
possible from destruction, and give them the power of 
obtaining an honest living. It is not consistent with my 
plan, in this place, to go further into the account of the 
institution, than as a school of agriculture, though the 
directors propose three objects of instruction : to qualify 
their pupils for farmers, sailors, or soldiers. The discipline of 
the institution is military. They have a full-rigged ship of 
ample size in the yard, that boys designed for naval life may 
here take their first practical lessons ; and they have a well- 



AGRICULTUKAL EDUCATION. 119 

stocked farm of five hundred acres, wliicli is under direction 
to be cultivated by tlie pupils. The institution is situated 
in a healthy part of the country, d,nd ' near a large market- 
town. They emjjloy an educated and experienced agricul- 
turist as director of the farm. The first object is to render 
it productive, that it may go as far as it can be made to go 
towards defraying the expenses of the institution ; the 
second, to instruct the boys in the best and most improved 
methods of husbandry. The institution had its foundation 
in private subscription, and though in its commencement it 
had many difiiculties to struggle with, it has now a firm 
establishment '. Besides a farm, there are connected with 
the institution a large garden, an extensive nursery, and a 
manufactory for the fabrication of all the implements, 
carriages, &c., which are used on the farm. The boys are 
likewise employed in the making of the shoes, caps, clothes, 
and bedding, which are required, and many fancy articles 
which serve for sale, and give them occupation, when by any 
circumstances they are prevented from out-door labour. The 
number of pupils is at present 450. It is not intended to 
keep them after sixteen, but they are willing to receive them 
at the earliest convenient age. I saw several not more than 
six or seven years old. They live in families of forty or 
fifty, in separate houses, under the care of a respectable man 
and his wife, who give them their whole time. This seemed 
to me a most judicious provision. They have a guardian 
with them in the fields, who always works with them. Many 
of them have been condemned at courts of justice for some 
petty oftence, and many of them, orphans and friendless, have 
been taken up in the streets in a condition of miserable 
vagabondage. The discipline of the institution is altogether 

^ The Vicomte de Courteilles gave a large estate, and M. De Metz, a dis- 
tinguished philanthropist and a royal counsellor, besides sacrificing liis high 
situation at court, lives among the children, and gives, the greatest of all 
charities, his whole time, his hand, his head, and heart, entirely to this object. 



120 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

moral and paternal. Confinement, abstinence, solitude, and 
disgrace, constitute the chief punishments ; but there are no 
whips, nor blows, nor ' chains. It has been so far eminently 
successful. A boy, who had been early familiar with punish- 
ments and prisons, and now for some time a 'resident at 
Mettray, was asked, Why he did not run away from Mettray ? 
His memorable answer was, " Because there are no bolts nor 
bars to prevent me." 

When one looks at the innumerable herds of children, 
turned, as it were, adnft in a great city, not merely tempted, 
but actually instructed, stimulated, and encouraged, in crime, 
and observes them gradually gathering in and borne onwards 
on the swift current with increasing rapidity to the precipice 
of destruction, until escape becomes almost impossible, how 
can we enough admire the combined courage, generosity, and 
disinterestedness, which plunges in that it may rescue some 
of these wretched victims from that frightful fate which 
seems all but inevitable ? I do not know a more beautiful, 
and scarcely a more touching, passage in the Holy Scriptures 
than that which represents the angels in Heaven as rejoicing 
over a repenting and rescued sinner. It is, indeed, a ministry 
worthy of the highest and holiest spirits, to which the Supreme 
Source of aU goodness and benevolence has imparted any por- 
tion of his Divine nature. 

If we look at this institution even in a more humble and 
practical view, as affording a good education in the mechanical 
and agricultural arts, its great utility cannot be doubted ; 
and much good seed will be sown here, which, under the 
blessing of God, is sure to return excellent and enduring 
fruits. 

I should have said before, that there is connected with the 
institution a hospital which was a model of cleanliness, 
good ventilation, and careful attendance ; all the services of 
which were rendered by those indefatigable doers of good, 
the Sisters of Cliaritv. 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 121 

4. Colony at Petit Bourg. — Another institution of a 
similar kind to that at Mettray, is about twenty miles from 
Paris, at a place called Petit Bourg. It was once a palace, 
built by a profligate king for a profligate woman, but now is 
converted into a school of charity, — certainly a better use. 
It is not designed for criminals or the condemned, but for 
vagabond children, fatherless, motherless, and friendless ; 
and is to be regarded as a place for the prevention rather 
than the cure of crime. The farm contains about seventy 
acres ; and though an expensive purchase, and a house much 
too magnificent for a pauper establishment, yet the large 
rooms in the house, and the various spacious appendages, 
have been easily converted to the useful purposes of the 
institution. The nearness to the capital, where the sub- 
scribers to the funds principally reside, and therefore can 
have constant access to it, and a quick market for the pro- 
duce in fruit and vegetables, are compensating circumstances 
for the exorbitant cost of the land. No person is received over 
sixteen years of age, or kept beyond twenty-one. The cost 
of maintaining a pupil is twelve pounds sterling, sixty dollars ; 
and they are paid for by individual subscribers, or out of the 
common funds. Seventy pupils are now maintained here ; 
and the applications are far beyond their power of receiving. 
The children are trained to agriculture, to gardening in its 
various branches, and some of them to diflbrent trades, as 
tailors, shoemakers, capmakers, blacksmiths, and caipenters. 
The farming was of a kind to be immediately productive, and 
was well managed. The cows at this establishment, as, in- 
deed, in most parts of the continent which I have visited, 
are soiled, — that is, fed in the stables constantly ; and were 
of a superior description. There were two kinds which 
particularly attracted my attention, under the designation 
of Norman and Flemish. In appearance and promise I 
have seldom seen any superior. I could obtain no exact 
returns ; but the Flemish was remarkable for size, and 



122 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

stated to be equally remarkable for her product in milk 
and butter. 

With a view to encoui-age their exertions, the pupils have 
a portion of their earnings put by at interest, for their 
benefit ; and which they receive, if, at the close of their 
term, they leave the place with honour ; but not if they 
are dismissed for faults or crimes, or if they leave irregularly, 
and without permission. I hope it will not be deemed out 
of place if I remark here in passing, that the discipline of 
the institution is intended to be wholly moral and paternal. 
Light penalties, which afiect the mind, and which are designed 
to operate upon the self-respect of the offender, and to affect 
his character and standing, are found much more effectual 
than any corporal punishments. A public court, at which 
the master presides, is held among the pupils once a week, 
when the daily records of the institution are looked over. 
Here the deficient or guilty are called to account by their 
companions, and the penalties decreed. This, which may be 
called a court of honour, has proved signally effectual. 

There are, besides Mettray and Petit Bourg, several other 
institutions on the same plan in different parts of Franco. 
They cannot be too strongly commended ; and this seems a 
kind of philanthropy without fault. Let me add, with 
reverence, that if it were a mission worthy of a Celestial 
Messenger to seek and to save those who were perishing, 
what can be more a duty than, in our humble measure, to 
imitate a Divine example \ 



' Some of my readers may be interested in the subjoined anecdote, which I 
received from the benevolent director of the establishment : — Among the re- 
wards given at the institution, and those, extraordinary as it may seem, most 
coveted and deemed most honourable, are what ai'e called tickets of favour. 
These only entitle the possessor to obtain some mitigation of punishment for an 
offending companion by bearing it himself. In one case, at the strong solicita- 
tion of the parents, a very unmanageable boy had been received into the insti- 
tution. Silence is always strictly enjoined at meal times. This boy, after 
repeated admonitions, persisted in violating this rule, when a monitor took him 



CROPS. 123 

I have deemed it useful to go thus fully into the matter of 
agricultural education in France, as the subject attracts 
much attention in England and the United States. The 
provision made in France for this object is obviously of a 
most liberal character, and the arrangements are made with 
equal judgment and wisdom. 

I pass now to other topics. 



XVI. CROPS. 

The crops cultivated in France are the usual cereal grains, 
wheat, rye, barley, and oats ; but what may be called the 
peculiar crops, yielding an immense pecuniary value, are 
wine, silk, and sugar. 

1. Wheat. — In gross amount, the wheat grown in France 
constitutes an immense crop. With the exception of Russia, 
from which no accurate statistical returns have been ob- 
tained, and in European Russia comparatively little wheat is 
grown, the bread used being chiefly of rye, it is stated, that 
more than half of the wheat grown in Europe is produced in 

by the collar in order to remove him from the table. The boy instantly stabbed 
the monitor, so as to endanger his life. For this offence he was sentenced to 
some months' imprisonment and seclusion upon short allowance. After being 
some time confined, the boys solicited his release ; the boy who had been 
wounded among the rest, and who had a right to claim a favour. After repeated 
refusals, the master at length consented, upon condition that the boy who had 
been wounded should take liis place, and suffer out the time which remained to 
complete his sentence. This being agreed to, and the wounded boy taking the 
place and the penalties of the criminal, the culprit was appointed to the duty of 
attending upon him by carrying him his food. The confined boy finished the 
time to which the criminal had been sentenced. In the meanwhile the culprit, 
witnessing the sufferings of the boy whom he had injured, and his magnanimity 
in undertaking to suffer for him, and the kind and forgiving conduct of the 
whole school towards him, was so deeply affected by it, that it appeared to have 
worked an entire reformation of character, and he became and had continued 
for a long time one of the best boys in the school. 



124 CROPS. 

France. From the best statistical accounts tliat can be ob- 
tained, the wheat annually produced in the United Kingdom, 

England, Scotland, Ireland, is 111,081,320 bushels. 

In France it is 198,660,000 „ 

The amount of seed ordinarily sown to the acre is from 
two to three bushels. The return of crop for the seed sown 
is represented as, in the best districts, averaging 6'25 for 
one ; in the least productive 5*40 for one ; but the mean 
average return for the seed in the principal wheat-growing 
departments is reckoned at 6*07 for one. These accounts 
must be considered as uncertain. Any person having ex- 
perience in the case, knows how difficult is even an approach 
to accuracy. My readers may be curious to know the calcu- 
lations which have been made in regard to some other coun- 
tries in this matter. 



NORTH EUROPE. 

Countries. Year. Increase for seed sown. 

Sweden and Norway . . . 1838 . . 4'50 for one. 

Denmark 1827 .. 6 „ 

Russia, a good harvest . . . 1819 . . 5 „ 

, Province of Tambof . 1821 . . 4-50 „ 

, Provinces north of 50° 

latitude 1821 . . S „ 

Poland 1826 . . 8 

England \ 1830 . . 9 

Scotland 1830 . . 8 

Ireland 1825 . . 10 

Holland 1828 . . 7-50 

Belgium . 1828 . . 11 

Bavaria 1827 . . 7 to 8 „ 

Prussia 1817 . . 6 

Austria 1812 . . 7-05 

Hungary 1812 . . 4 „ 



Year. 


Increase 


for seed sown 


1828 . 


. 6 


for one. 


1786 . 


. 10 


J' 


— 


. 10 


jj 


— 


. 15 


}) 


— 


. 4 to 5 „ 





. 15 


?> 



CROPt^. 125 

Switzerland, 1825, lands of an inferior quality, 3 ; of a good 

quality, 8 ; of the best quality, 12-! 
France, inferior lands, 3 ; best lands, 6. 

CENTRAL EUROPE. 
Countries. 

Spain 

Portugal 

Tuscany 

Plains of Lucca .... 
Piedmont. Plains of Marengo — 

Bologna 

Roman States. Pontine Marshes, 20 ; ordinary lands, 8. 
Kingdom of Naples — best districts, 20 ; ordinary lands, 8. 
Malta — the best lands, 38 to 64 ; ordinaiy lands, 22, 25, 30 \ 

It is obvious how difficult it must be to arrive in this case 
at any thing like exactness. The quantity of seed employed 
on the same extent of land is veiy different in different 
countries, but the product cannot always bear the above 
proportions to the amount sown. That I may be understood, 
let us look at Malta, where a return of 64 for one is 
given for the best lands. Are we to infer that in such case, 
if two bushels were sown to an acre, the ordinary proportion 
in France, the product would be 128 bushels per acre? or, if 
three bushels were sown, as in the best cultivation in Eng- 
land, the crop would be 192 bushels ? In Ancient Egypt, the 
return is represented as 100 for one ; in Byzantium, as 1 50 
for one ; in Ancient Libya, as 300 for one. No certain 
conclusions can be founded upon such statements. The 
distinguished traveller, M. Humboldt, states the average 
product of wheat in Mexico as 25 to 80 for one, and this on 

* Statistique des Cereaks de la France, par M. A. Moreau de Jonnes. 
Paris, 1843. 



126 CROPS. 

table-land elevated 8000 feet above tlie sea ; and that, even 
on large farms, be found it 50 and 65 for one. In the 
Antilles he states the production of maize, or Indian corn, as 
800 for one. But I have seen in several cases in New 
England, in the culture of Indian corn, a return of 400 for 
one ; that is to say, the hills being three feet apart each way, 
a peck of Indian corn would be sufficient seed for an acre. 
If 100 bushels of grain is in such case produced on an acre — 
and this sometimes happens — this is clearly a return of 400 
for one. 

Of the average yield of wheat in France it is not possible 
to form a conclusion on which entire reliance may be placed. 
Until a very large district can be taken, and the crops and 
land actually measured, no certainty can be attained ; and 
then of course it must vary much in diiferent climates, or 
expositions in different seasons, and under different modes of 
culture. At present it is altogether matter of conjecture, and 
it would be difficult to find two men of independent judgment 
who would agree in the case. The average yield in England 
I have heard stated by men of political standing, claiming to 
be well informed on the subject, at not more than fifteen 
bushels per acre. An eminent agricultural writer placed it 
at eighteen bushels some years since ; men of sanguine tem- 
perament rate it at over thirty bushels. These evidently are 
wholly conjectural estimates. In France it is stated in the 
best districts to average twenty-two bushels. This rests upon 
similar authority. It would be of immense importance to 
any government to know the exact product grown in any 
county or district, or in the whole country ; and this might 
be obtained by compelling, on the part of the owner or culti- 
vator, an actual return of his crop ; but it is of little use to 
found such returns on estimates purely conjectural. There is 
another point in respect to this cultivation which the agri- 
cultural societies might obtain, and which would be of great 
importance ; that is, first, the smallest yield ordinarily 



CROPS. 127 

obtained, and, next, the largest yield actually obtained, with 
a detailed history of the culture in each case ; the causes of 
the inferiority in the former, and of the superiority in the 
latter, as far as they can be ascertained. Reluctant as most 
men are to state them, yet, as much benefit may be derived 
from a knowledge of the causes of failure as of success ; and 
in the latter case, every one must see the importance of 
knowing what can be done, that every stimulus may be given 
to an emulation which in agriculture is always wholesome, 
and a great instrument of success. In England, fifty bushels 
per acre were reported to me, on the best authority, as the 
yield upon a large farm in a very favourable season. More 
than eighty bushels have been reported, upon what is deemed 
ample testimony, to the Royal Society of England, as the 
product of a single acre \ In France I have had, upon the 
best authority, reports of forty bushels, forty-four bushels, 
and seventy-two bushels. It is beyond all doubt that the 
crops in England have, within a few years, considerably 
increased ; and, by the oflScial returns in France, where much 
pains have been taken to render them accurate, it appears 
that within eighty years, while the population has increased 
in the proportion of twenty-one to thirty-three millions, the 
production of wheat has more than doubled ; which shows an 
improvement in the comforts of the people. It is further 
stated, upon good authority, that the product of an acre of 
land is ordinarily double what it was three-fourths of a 
century ago ; which shows a most gratifying improvement 
in the agriculture of the kingdom. It is an instructive 
fact, that the product of wheat in France has increased 
sixty-three per cent, since the close of Napoleon's wars — a 

' It is almost impossible to get any exact return from an English tenant- 
farmer of his products, for the reason that he will give no occasion to his land- 
lord to raise his rent. In countries where the amount produced is a subject of 
such great importance, and wliere the population is pressing so hard upon the 
supply, an accurate return of the yearly product should be induced by some 
pecuniary encouragement, or otherwise made compulsory. 



1 28 CROPS. 

fact wliicli shows, in a most striking manner, the interruption 
which war brings into the useful arts of life, and the priva- 
tions and wretchedness which are sure to follow in its train. 

There have been in France, as every where else, discussions 
as to the origin of wheat, many persons maintaining that it 
is an inferior plant in its natural state, and that its present 
condition is the result of artificial cultivation. The specula- 
tion will do neither harm nor good. There is little reason 
for the supposition ; and it seems extraordinary that similar 
changes are never witnessed at the present day. It is 
certain that the wheat cultivated at the present time does 
not differ from that found in the pyramids of Egypt. 

There are nearly thirty different kinds of wheat cultivated 
in France, including both autumn and spring varieties. In 
respect to this distinction, there is little doubt that, by 
a careful selection of the earliest ripe, after a time, the 
autumn may be converted into a spring wheat ; and the 
spring wheat being repeatedly sown in the autumn, would 
presently lose its properties of early ripening. It would be 
imprudent to prescribe any particular species for universal 
or for general use, as the different kinds are adapted to 
different localities, some being much earlier than others, and 
therefore, though yielding a less product, ripening before the 
droughts of summer, and escaping, in some degree, the 
dangers of blight ; and others being more susceptible to 
injury from frost. The white wheat of Flanders is a highly 
esteemed variety ; and is said to be the same as a wheat 
known in England by the names of the Eclipse wheat, the 
Wellington, and the Talavera. It is highly productive and 
beautiful, and is particularly suited to lands of the richest 
quality. The white wheat of Provence is pronounced the 
most excellent variety for the quality of its grain ; its straw 
is very tender, and therefore liable to be lodged ; and it is 
too delicate for a cold climate. The Lammas wheat is of an 
excellent quality ; early in its ripening ; it sheds its grain 



CROPS. 129 

easily in tlio field ; it therefore requires to be cut early. It 
is very susceptible to injury from cold. These are all winter 
wheats ; but what is called a spring wheat in Europe is a 
wheat which should be sown in February ; whereas, in the 
United States, that only is called a spring wheat which may 
be sown, with a surety of its ripening, in any part of March 
or April. 

The Tuscan wheat, used in the manufacture of the cele- 
brated and beautiful Leghorn bonnets, is a spring wheat, with 
very short heads, and produces little grain. The Victoria 
wheat, of a good quality, and brought to France from Columbia 
in South America, and represented as ripening in sixt}^ days, 
was not found, in France, in advance of the common wheats 
of the country. I imported, some years since, a wheat from 
Spain, highly commended for its rapid growth' and early 
maturity, but in these respects it showed no superiority over 
the kinds ordinarily cultivated in the country. 

We are already, in the United States, in possession of 
many beautiful kinds of wheat. I can only add, if we could 
import a few of the French bakers to instruct us in the 
useful and important art of making bread, it might prove a 
signal advantage. I believe no where is so good bread to be 
found as in France ; and this, not in the cities only, but 
throughout the country ; even at the meanest village tavern 
you will ordinarily find bread of the best quality. 

The Egyptian wheat, which I have seen growing several 
times in the United States, and which is known by its pro- 
ducing several heads upon the same stalk, is highly produc- 
tive on rich land. Its flour, however, is not highly esteemed. 
It does not well bear the cold. It is liable to degenerate, 
and to produce, at last, only one head. 

A large portion of the soil of France is unfavourable to 
wheat, from its excessive dryness. Though, beyond doubt, a 
soil partially calcareous is favourable to wheat, yet this 
quality in excess is unfavourable. The soil for wheat cannot 

K 



130 CROPS. 

be too good, though it would seem as tliough there were 
exceptions to this remark in some of the rich alluvions of 
the West ; but it may be made too rich by manure, and 
especially by manure applied in too green a state. It is in 
general the custom to apply the manure to the previous crop, 
though in many cases, and especially where liquid manure is 
attainable, it is applied immediately before the sowing of the 
crop. This was particularly the case in the instance which I 
have given, of seventy-two bushels being produced to an acre. 
A naked fallow is sometimes resorted to in France, espe- 
cially where the land abounds in weeds, and more particularly 
the squitch-grass \ which peculiarly infests the old lands in 
Europe. The quantity sometimes "collected from land, in 
what are called even good farming districts, is surprisingly 
great, and would lead one to infer, in some cases, that it was 
the principal crop grown. 

As to the crop which is deemed best to precede wheat, I 
shall give the opinions of the best farmers in one of the best 
cultivated districts in France. Where tobacco has grown, 
wheat succeeds to great advantage. The cultivation for 
tobacco is clean and careful, and the manuring abundant. 
Wlieat follows hemp with equal success, because the cultiva- 
tion of hemp is equally clean with that of tobacco, and it is 
even more strongly manured ; but the straw of wheat which 
follows hemp is not so abundant as after tobacco. Wlieat 
after cabbage yields less straw than after some other crops, 
but more grain ^. Beans are by some farmers regarded as a 
crop propitious to wlieat, but not so favourable as those crops 
to which I have referred ; and by others it is believed to 
produce less grain, and that of an inferior quality. After 
Indian corn the wheat gives a good grain, but an inferior 

^ Triticum repens. 

2 " It is calculated that 120 sheaves of wheat grown after cabbages, will 
give more grain than 150 sheaves grown after tobacco." — Scherwz, " Culture 
D'Alsace." 



CROPS. 131 

amount of straw ; but in some localities it is represented as 
giving an equally good product in grain and straw. After 
lucerne, wheat is cultivated to great advantage ; the lucerne 
strikes a deep tap-root, which greatly enriches the ground 
when it is turned in. Wheat succeeds well after clover, if 
the clover is good ; if the clover is poor, the crop of wheat is 
likely to be inferior, which is in other words only saying, if 
the land is rich, the crop will be good ; if in poor condition, 
the result will correspond. Potatoes are generally condemned 
as a crop to precede wheat. In parts of France where wheat 
is grown every second year, potatoes are frequently the 
intermediate crop ; and then the wheat, as well as the 
potatoes, are manured. After turnips, wheat is stated to be 
richer in straw than in grain. The rotation differs in many 
places, sometimes wdieat occurring every other year, and 
sometimes only twice in six years. 

I cannot look upon these various statements with all the 
confidence which some persons place in them. A presump- 
tion is always in favour of the general and long continued 
practice of any country ; yet it is far from being an infallible 
test of what is good or best, because it is by no means certain 
to be the result of experiments carefully made, and as care- 
fully noted. Two or three great points, however, seem to be 
fully settled ; that the land for wheat cannot be too deeply 
cultivated, nor too thoroughly manured, in the crop of the 
preceding year ; and that it cannot be too thoroughly cleaned. 
Mr. Coke of England, afterwards Lord Leicester, offered a 
large reward to any person who would discover a single weed 
among his crops, after their usual cleaning. The wheat 
plant sends out descending, as well as lateral roots. After 
land has been thus well prepared, it is not deemed best to 
plough more than two or three inches for the sowing of 
wheat. By many persons, in climates where the frost heaves 
the land deeply, it is deemed best to cover the seed of 
autumn-sown wheat by the plough. Where the land has 

K 2 



132 CROPS. 

been ploughed in the autumn, it is advised only to harrow 
the land in the spring, and harrow in the seed upon land 
thus prepared, and press it closely with a roller. Land is 
frequently after being sown trodden by men, but better by 
sheep : a practice to which I have referred in my remarks 
upon English husbandry. 

In England, certainly by all the best farmers, wheat is 
sown in drills with a machine. These machines are in 
general, like many of the agricultural implements of England, 
where they admit of being so, heavy, complicated, and ex- 
pensive ; but they do their work in an admirable manner; 
and many of them are contrived so as to sow the manure, 
when in a state of powder, at the same time as the seed. 
Many of the French farmers sow their wheat in drills, and 
by a machine, but not of a very improved character. In 
Switzerland I found drill machines, invented and made in 
the country, not expensive, which certainly performed their 
work well. Experiments have been made in France of 
planting wheat in hills, six inches or more apart, by a hoe ; 
making the hole, and dropping several seeds in the hill, as 
Indian corn is often planted in the United States. There 
must be obviously a great saving of seed by this mode ; and 
the result has been pronounced successful ; but I have not 
been able to get full information. It was said to be by this 
mode that a crop of seventy-two bushels to the acre was 
produced. The crop, while growing, w^as manured with 
liquid manure, and was kept thoroughly clean. This re- 
sembles somewhat the mode of planting by a dibble in 
England. Such a mode would, at first sight, be strongly 
objected to in the United States, because of the labour 
which it would require. There is often a difficulty in the 
United States of procuring labour for any consideration ; but 
other things being equal, a wise farmer would not ask simph^, 
what the labour would cost, but whether the result would 
compensate the labour. 



CROPS. 133 

The quantity of seed sown to an acre is ordinarily two 
bushels, more frequently less than more. The quantity 
depends somewhat upon the nature of the soil, a larger 
quantity being sown upon inferior than upon good soils. 
Somewhat depends likewise upon the time of sowing. If 
sown early in September, the plants have a longer time to 
grow, and tiller more abundantly than if sowed later. Early 
in September is the time ordinarily recommended for sowing 
wheat, where the previous crop can be got off and the ground 
be made ready. In situations where the winter is severe, 
late sowing is strongly recommended, so that the wheat may 
make little or no progress before the early spring. In this 
way the crop is secured from the injury of the frost, which, 
when it destroys the young lateral roots, is extremely un- 
favourable if not destructive to the crop. The wheat crop 
does not suffer from the severity of the cold where it is 
uninterrupted, but from alternate freezings and thawings. 
When the ground is expanded by the frost, the small roots 
of the young plants are broken and mutilated, and the plants 
being often thrown out of the ground perish. 

The diseases common to wheat in the United States are 
equally common in Europe, the smut, the rust, and the mildew. 
A remedy or rather preventive of the first, in almost all cases 
successful, is well known in the United States, — the washing 
wheat in brine, and sprinkling it with lime. Probably, the only 
advantage of the brine over simple water is, that its adhesive 
nature makes the lime stick to the seed. A solution of 
green copperas is equally effectual ; and sometimes arsenic 
is used. The last is objectionable, from the danger of having 
the substance about the premises. The wheat may be pre- 
pared two or three days before sowing, but it must not be 
allowed to become heated. If laid in a heap upon the floor, 
it should be occasionally stirred. 

The rust and the mildew seem mainly due to atmospheric 
causes. When the wheat is particularly forced by alternate 



134 CROPS. 

sunshine and rain, attended with extreme heat, when every 
species of vegetation is urged to the top of its speed, and 
especially where the land itself is very rich and the air 
stagnant or confined, it seems as if more sap were forced 
into the plant than it could dispose of, the vessels burst, and 
the plant in truth dies of repletion. My own experience and 
observation seem fully to confimi this theory. The blight 
of mildew is a different affection. The causes are not well 
ascertained, and the preventives equally undetermined. A 
distinguished German clergyman or pastor, and I may be 
allowed to add in passing, that to no profession has agriculture 
been more indebted for its improvements, after long and 
careful observation is of opinion, that three causes may 
produce it ; the state of the atmosphere, when the plant is 
in a particular stage of its growth ; an unfortunate choice of 
the time of sowing ; or the particular condition of the soil. 
He has found that, in the same neighbourhood, the wheat in 
some fields has been badly affected, while in others it has 
escaped the mildew. This circumstance seems opposed to the 
atmospheric theory ; yet in the same country, the state of the 
atmosphere may be different in different positions and aspects 
of the field. Every one must have experienced this in passing 
along a public road in an evening ; without a thermometer 
we become sensible in different places to great variations 
of temperature. With us in New England late -sown peas 
seldom escape the mildew, or what is called the blue mould, 
which has seemed to me attributable to the heat of our 
autumnal mid-day sun, followed by the chilliness of our 
autumnal evenings and their abundant dews. The same 
theory may account for the facts which he mentions in 
regard to sowing. He has sown wheat in September, which 
has suffered slightly from mildew ; in October, in the same 
year, which has suffered severely ; in November, which has 
entirely escaped. The circumstances in these cases are not 
all given. It is, therefore, difficult to make up a judgment ; 



CROPS. 135 

but one would infer that the late-sown wheat was carried 
beyond the susceptible season. The influence which the 
condition of the soil may have upon the health of the plant 
in this matter, or how far it may be afiected by the manure 
employed, arc points not determined. In one district in 
Alsace it is said the farmers find their wheat liable to suffer 
from mildew, when it follows clover which has been highly 
manured ; but the manure customarily used in this case is 
the manure of hogs, to which some are disposed to attribute 
this result. Nothing seems more uncertain, or rather more 
imperfectly defined than agricultural facts, excepting it be 
agricultural theories. In order safely to deduce a valuable 
or practical truth from facts, the facts must be accurately and 
exactly determined and observed ; but few men have this 
patience of observation. All the circumstances under which 
they occur, likewise, should be known and considered. Few 
men have the capacity to discover and comprehend them ; 
and, in many cases, it must be confessed that, in our present 
state of knowledge, they are with difficulty ascertained. This 
disorder is clearly not propagated as smut is ; and liming the 
seed has no effect in preventing it. This farmer is of the 
opinion that it does not depend upon the manure employed ; 
at the same time he is in favour of turning in a crop of 
clover as manure for wheat, rather than to apply animal 
manure. Some persons confound the diseases of rust and 
mildew. The result is much the same, but the appearances 
are different ; the crop being in both cases nearly ruined. 
In the case of rust, the wheat becomes suddenly attacked and 
the stalks covered with literally a red rust, the grain ceases 
to fill, and becomes shrivelled. In the case of mildew, the 
plants become covered with a whitish mould, and the stalks 
themselves become discoloured in various places, and turn 
black, as in a limb where mortification has taken place. 

I have obtained no information as to what is called in the 
United vStates the Hessian fly, from the eggs having been 



186 CROPS. 

supposed to have been brought to the United States by the 
Hessian soldiers, who were the mercenaries of the British 
government in the American revolution. I cannot learn that 
it is known liere. The grasshoppers, or, as they are here 
called, the locusts, become destructive to a wheat crop, when 
the grass fails in the fields. The grain-worm, of which I 
have given an account in my State Reports, and in other 
publications, does not appear to be known on the Continent, 
though they have heretofore suffered from it in England \ 
Such scourges seem often temporary or periodical. 

I have spoken of the quantity and the preparation of the 
seed. It is said by some that shrunken seed, or seed im- 
perfectly ripened, will germinate and serve for another crop 
as well as that which is perfectly sound. I believe it may be 
considered as an established axiom, that perfect seed is 
always to be preferred to that which has any defect. In 
many provinces new wheat is always preferred for sowing ; 
but many experienced farmers advise to sow wheat which is 
a year old, as a security against smut ; for though the crop 
may have been smutty, from which the seed in such case is 
taken, the smutted ears are said, in the course of the year, to 
lose their germinating power, and do not communicate the 
disease to those grains with which they come in contact. A 
farmer, however, can hardly excuse himself for neglecting to 
take the prescribed precautions against smut in the prepara- 
tion of the seed, which have been usually found effectual ; 

1 I believe there is an effectual remedy against this destructive insect, under 
whose ravages I have known the most promising crops completely ruined. The 
fly, from whose egg this insect or worm is generated, appears first at the time 
when the wheat is in flower. If at that time the growing crop is slightly 
sprinkled with newly slaked lime sown broad-cast over it, it will commonly 
save the crop. It will either prevent the fly depositing his egg, or by its 
causticity it will destroy it. The mode is of no importance compared with the 
result. The destruction of the crop is not evident until the time for harvest ; 
and then, though the external appearance may be perfect, there will be found 
in the grain or kerael a small yellow worm or maggot which has comi)letely 
destroyed it. 



CROl'H. 137 

and it is obvious that if old seed is used in preference to new, 
a larger quantity is required to guard against the failure of 
such as have become effete. In some provinces, they deem 
it necessary to change their seed once in two or three years. 
But the reason given by some persons for this practice is, that 
the cultivation in these departments is slovenly and negli- 
gent, and so the wheat degenerates. I think experiments 
have fully demonstrated as applicable to all plants, that 
where the cultivation is good, and the kind itself good, we 
have only carefully to select from year to year the very best 
for seed, and there will be found no necessity for changing 
the seed ; and the crop itself will be likely continually to im- 
prove. In some cases, and especially where the cold is severe, 
and the winds are strong, it is advised to plough in the seed- 
wheat to the depth of about three inches. The best culti- 
vators advise this always, especially where the lands are 
light ; but it is a slovenly mode, as practised by some, to sow 
it upon the stubble of a preceding crop, and merely harrow it 
in. If nothing else, the benefit arising from the decayed 
stubble or the clover, when turned under as manure, is thus 
almost wholly lost. Wlieat which is to be sown on a clover 
stubble ' is advised to be sown two or three weeks earlier 
than that which is sown after tobacco or hemp, that it may 
gain strength ; and it is the custom where wheat is sown 
after tobacco, to spread the stalks of the tobacco crop uj)on 
the field, where they remain until the spring, when they are 
removed. I do not know the advantage of this, unless as a 
protection against the cold. 

Nothing is more prejudicial to the success of a wheat croj), 

' Wheat manured by turning in a green vegetable crop, is supposed to have 
less strength, and is therefore more apt to become lodged, than that grown, 
after a crop which has been manured with rich animal manure. The occasion 
of the stalk of wheat being tender, and the wheat therefore more liable to fall, 
is said to be owing to a deficiency of silex in the soil. But there are few soils 
where this deficiency exists. I give these opinions as opinions resting upon 
respectable authority, but without vouching for them. 



138 CROPS. 

than excess of wet ; either stagnant on the surface, or in the 
soil. I have as yet met with no cases of underdraining or 
suhsoiHng in France, hut the vahie of this immense improve- 
ment will presently he understood. Where the soil is clayey 
and wet, wheat is sowed in heds or stitches, and the drains 
between them kept clear. Experiments have been made in 
some parts of France for the irrigation of wheat, and with 
success, where a porous soil or a sufficient drainage imme- 
diately carried off the water ; but of course it operated most 
injuriously where the soil or the surface retained too much 
wet. 

The cultivation of spring wheat, unless the land is pre- 
pared in the autumn, is liable to many objections. The 
spring season is crowded with labours which must then be 
accomplished or not at all. Land ploughed in the autumn, 
which is, from its position or the nature of the soil, liable to 
retain the water of winter, is difficult to be worked even by 
the harrow in the spring, and in an unhealthy condition for 
being sowed. Spring wheat, though making an equally good 
flour, and for some purposes more esteemed than any other, 
seldom yields so abundant a crop as autumn-sown wheat. 

In some instances, wheat is carefully weeded and cleaned 
in the spring ; but this, in examples under my observation, 
has not been executed by a machine, nor very perfectly done. 
Nothing can be more beautiful than the cultivation, in some 
parts of England and Scotland, where wheat is sown in per- 
fectly straight lines by a machine, and then carefully cleaned 
by a horse -hoe. Though I have seen good crops of wheat in 
France, the cultivation in numerous cases was far from 
being clean. When the early-sown wheat is far advanced in 
the spring, it is sometimes mowed ; but this practice is not 
approved. It is sometimes fed down by sheep, and with 
great advantage ; but it is advised not to put horned cattle 
ui:)on it. This feeding of the wheat should be done, however, 
only when the crop is very luxuriant, and before May. 



CROPS. 139 

The wheat is sometimes manured in the spring on the 
surface, where liquid manure is easily obtained. Ashes, 
wood ashes, either crude or leeched ashes, are applied to 
wheat with the greatest benefit. This is done in the spring 
when the wheat is harrowed. The harrowing of wheat in the 
spring, when it is a few inches in height, is practised and 
strongly commended by the best farmers. I have full confi- 
dence from experience in its utility. In England, where the 
wheat is cleaned and cultivated by a horse-hoe or scarifier, 
this is an eftectual substitute ; but where wheat is not 
cleaned by a machine, or where it is sown broad-cast, the 
practice of harrowing it with an iron-tooth harrow of con- 
siderable weight, and that two or three times, is strongly 
commended. This practice is said to have been suggested 
by accident to a common farmer, who, having sown clover 
upon his wheat in the spring, Avas afraid that in some cases 
the seed would not take, and ventured to harrow it in. He 
found to his surprise that the wheat which he had harrowed 
was much superior in the end to that which the harrow had 
not passed over. It is a general practice in some of the 
districts of France, to sow clover in the sjjring upon the 
wheat. This is a well-known practice in parts of 'New Eng- 
land, where it is sown upon the snow ; and, I am sorry to 
add, sown in many cases in the chaff from the barn-floor, 
when, of course, a variety of weeds and worthless plants are 
sown with it. The dung of domestic birds, pigeons, or barn- 
door fowls, where it can be obtained, is sown with much 
advantage upon the growing wheat in the spring. 

Where spring wheat is sown upon land ploughed in the 
autumn, which has not sufiered from wetness, it is not 
necessary to replough it, but to put the seed in simply with 
a harrow and a roller. It has seemed to me that the 
European farmers sometimes labour their lands too much, 
as in turning in a clover or stubble crop or a grass sward, 
they take pains to break the sward, and bring all the 



140 CROPS. 

vegetable matter to tho surface, to be burnt in some cases, or 
to be dried and exhaled in others, instead of leaving it to its 
natural decay under the soil, and its conversion into food for 
the growing crop. They are hardly aware of the amount of 
this vegetable matter, as demonstrated by an eminent farmer 
in New England, and a farmer who would be eminent any 
where, who found, by actual measurement and calculation, 
that the vegetable matter in a common closely-fed, field, 
or meadow, weighing the roots as well as the tops, amounted 
in an acre to full thirteen tons \ 

The manures applied to wheat are a matter of great im- 
portance. Different wheats, or wheats grown in different 
localities, differ very much in their nutritious properties, or 
in the quantity of good bread which can be obtained from 
them. The valuable and nutritious qualities of wheat are 
supposed to depend on the proportionate quantity of gluten 
and albumen which it contains. This is ascribed by many 
persons to the nature of the soil in which it has grown, and 
to the kind of manure which has been applied to it. This 
theory is altogether probable, and perhaps sufficiently estab- 
lished to induce us to act in reference to it ; and, therefore, 
to apply manures which are likely to contribute to the grow- 
ing plant the elements required. But many other things 
may come into operation, such especially as the climate and 
temperature, and other influences which are as yet imper- 
fectly understood by us. The quantity of flour yielded by 
different wheats varies considerably, as the millers well 
understand. A distinguished French chemist, in examining 
21 different kinds of wheat, found that the average yield 
in flour was as 79 of farinaceous matter to 100 pounds of 
crude grain. But this flour differed very much in its consti- 
tuents in different kinds of grain. In actual nutritious 
matter, the difference in different wheats was found to be as 

' Mr. Phinney, of Lemington, Massachusetts. 



CROPS. 141 

fourteen to twenty-one. These were wheats grown in differ- 
ent countries, and . different latitudes. If this difference 
depended wholly upon climate, it would of course be entirely 
beyond our control. 

In wine countries, it is known that in different localities 
the same species of grape produces a wine of an altogether 
different quality and value from what it does in others. 
The kind of grape, the mode of culture, the degree of ripe- 
ness, the mode of making the wine, the age of the wine, and, 
doubtless in many cases, various artificial processes, affect to 
a degree the quality of the wine produced ; but, beyond all 
this, there is something in the locality which is believed to 
determine its character. The celebrated wine, known as 
Constantia, is the product of a very limited territory at the 
Cape of Good Hope. In passing up the Rhine, there was 
pointed out to me the estate of Prince Metternich, where 
the celebrated Johannisberg wine is produced ; and it is 
produced no where else ; and from this circumstance its 
production is a source of immense profit. These facts seem 
to demonstrate the truth of the reply made always to my 
inquiries in relation to the subject, that there is something 
as yet unascertained, some peculiarity in the climate, aspect, 
or soil, from which the product derived its characteristic 
properties. The same or similar circumstances may operate 
upon the quality of wheat ; and it is obvious, as far as they 
are strictly local, dependent upon the climate and aspect, 
or upon any peculiarities of the soil which do not exist any 
where else, or upon any causes as yet unascertained, they 
are beyond our reach. 

But that the qualities of the wheat grown depend to a 
considerable degree upon the kind of manure employed, there 
can be no doubt. Some experiments in reference to this 
matter, made by a German farmer, may be interesting to my 
readers. 



142 



CEOPS. 



Gluten. 


Starch. 


85-1 . 


89-3 


34-2 . 


41-3 


331 . 


411 


22-9 . 


42-8 


32-9 . 


42-4 


13-7 . 


61-6 


12-2 . 


63-2 


120 . 


b-2-3 


9-2 . 


66-7' 



Wheats manured as underneath produced as below" 

1. With human urine . . 

2. „ oxen's blood , . 

3. „ human excrements 

4. „ dung of sheep . . 

5. „ „ goats . . 

6. „ „ horses . . 

7. „ „ pigeons . 

8. „ „ cows . . 

9. Soil not manured . . . 
I am unable to say how far these experiments are to be 

depended on ; and how far they have been confirmed by 
other experiments made with the same intention. Two 
things are quite remarkable in respect to them ; the one is 
the different qualities of grain grown with manures of the 
greatest efficacy, and that grown without any manure, being a 
difference of nine and thirty-five ; and the comparatively low 
result of pigeon's dung, which is generally rated very highly, 
and supposed to take its place with guano. The manner in 
which the animals whose manure was used for these experi- 
ments were fed, is a circumstance which may have materially 
affected the results : for the qualities of the manure of the 
same animals, under different courses of feeding, may be 
expected to be composed of different elements, and so to give 
different results ; so complicated necessarily are all experi- 
ments of this kind. 

The farmers in France are behind no others in what may 
be called, technically, agricultural science ; and some of those 
eminent men, who are sometimes called farmers of the closet, 
have gone into the most exact and minute mathematical 
calculations as to the actual amount of certain mineral 



' Cours D' Agriculture, par Gasi)arin. 



CROPS. 1 43 

elements, which arc supposed essential to the growth of the 
crop, or of any particular crop ; and next, as to the amount 
of these mineral substances, which any * particular crop 
carries off in the straw, and in the grain. They then pro- 
ceed to determine the exact amount of these substances, 
which must be restored to the soil in order to keep up its 
fertility. The first point is determined by analysing with 
great chemical exactness a portion of the soil ; the second, 
by analysing a portion of the crop, of the straw, and the 
grain ; and these premises being obtained, the third is of 
course matter of plain inference. These calculations are 
curious and ingenious, and if vegetation or the growth of 
plants were as simple an affair, and as well and as easily 
understood as many pretend that it is, these facts would 
have a most direct and immediately practical bearing. One 
of the most eminent of these calculators, however, himself 
admits that the application of these facts, or rather the rules 
deduced from them, is an operation difficult, delicate, and 
which only the most skilful persons can undertake \ 

In the present veiy imperfect state of our knowledge of 
vegetation, I am free to express my conviction, that they will 
answer no other purpose than that of mere curiosity and 
amusement. In the analysis of a soil, for example, if we 
suppose that a cubic foot is taken, this may be a very in - 
adequate representative of other parts of the field. If the 
soil is taken from the surface, or that part of the soil which 
is cultivated, yet there is the soil under this, into which the 
roots of the plant may extend themselves, and which may 
contain elements of which we are not apprised. In the 
chemical analysis of a soil, it is known, likewise, that much 
of the active portion, all the vegetable portion, is dissipated 
by heat, and no account is obtained of it but by the loss in 
weight. The analysis of a soil, likewise, though it may give 

' Gaspai'in's Course of Agriculture, vol. iii. p. 405. 



144 CROPS. 

all its component parts, is sure to destroy their combination, 
and disturb tlie relations which they held to each other. 
There is anothei* great omission in this case. Notwithstand- 
ing all the analyses which have been given of soils and 
products, where the amount of mineral elements removed have 
been most particularly determined, yet I have met with no 
instance of the analysis of a soil immediately after the 
removal of the crop ; by which, on comparison with its 
condition at the time of sowing, the actual loss could be 
detected. This is a great desideratum, which we may hope 
will presently be supplied. The assuniption of one most 
eminent agricultural chemist, that vegetation is nothing 
more than a simple chemical process, according as the science 
is now understood, is remarkable for its boldness ; but the 
proof certainly is not at present complete. I think he might 
as well have said that animal life is purely a chemical pro- 
cess, as that vegetable life is such an one. That which 
l^roceeds with such perfect regularity, that of which we can 
understand so many of the rules and principles by which it 
is governed and directed, that which we can to so great a 
degree control and regulate by the observance and application 
of these rules, is a matter which, we may presume, is not 
absolutely beyond the reach of the human faculties, and which 
we may hope, in the progress of inquiry, will presently be 
understood ; but when all the phenomena of vegetable life 
are considered, and even some of the most familiar, we find 
ourselves quite as much at a loss to comprehend the pro- 
cesses, as to understand, in respect to animal life, what first 
sets life in motion ? how are the bones framed ? how are the 
muscles packed ? how is the wonderful machinery of accretion, 
digestion, circulation, and assimilation arranged and im- 
pelled ? and how is it that, by ten thousand of what we call 
accidents, all this may be arrested or broken up, and the 
whole return to its original elements? The same remarks 
apply with equal force to vegetable as to animal life, and 



CROPS. 145 

how far wc must go before wc reach the final and tlic first 
Cause, no human sagacity has as yet approached a solution. 

A great many exact calculations have been made in 
reference to the weight of straw compared with the weight 
of grain, and the weight of stubble, when wheat is reaped 
with a sickle, compared with the whole weight of grain and 
straw. These results must, in different cases, be so affected by 
the seasons and soil, by the amount of croj), by the time which 
the plant has had to mature itself in, by the height at which 
the grain is cut, and by the condition of the straw when dry, 
that it would be difiicult to draw any practical rule from them. 
In ten different experiments made in reference to this point, 
which have been shown me, no two agree. 

In respect to the manures proper for wheat, I shall say 
something in another place. Eveiy one seems to acknow- 
ledge the value of potassium, the principle which is found in 
common wood ashes. This accords with the resvdt of my 
own experience and observation ; for when called upon, in 
the way of my official duty, to examine the modes of culti- 
vation and manuring, in no less than thirty-six hundred 
experiments in the culture of wheat, I found that wherever 
ashes were used upon the field, their efficacy was emphatically 
commended. The chemical analysis of wheat, taking straw 
and grain together, gives only a small proportion of this 
principle in the whole mass, such as 2 parts in 300 ; but 
this seems evidently indispensable. Whether it is absolutely 
necessary in a certain proportion, as food of the plant, or 
whether it operates in preparing other matters in the soil to 
become food for it, I shall not presume even to give an 
opinion. I must submit to minds qualified by the high 
attainments of science, to follow out inquiries so subtle, and 
at the same time so curious. 

I have occupied the attention of my readers a long time 
on the subject of the culture of wheat, because of its immense 
importance. In the United States we cannot be said as yet 

L 



146 fiROPS!. 

to liave known want ; but in the years 1812 and 18J6 there 
was, throughout the whole of New England, an almost entire 
failure of the crop of Indian corn ; and it was not until such 
experience came upon us that many persons were fully sensible 
how much and how essentially this product entered into our 
daily wants. The wheat crop has become infinitely more im- 
portant, for, with the exception of the slave states, I do not 
know a district of the country where it does not form by far 
the principal food of the population. But one has need to 
have lived in Europe through a famine to know the immense 
importance of any great and general article of subsistence ; 
and the suffering among the mass of the community, which 
follows even its scarcity, still more the miseries and horrors 
which its total loss brings upon them. It is a fact which, as 
long as human memory endures, will stand out in bold relief 
on the darkest pages of history, that, in the years 1846 and 
1847, in a country not so large as New England, by the 
blight of a single crop, not less than 116,000 of human beings 
actually perished by the awful death of starvation, not 
to add the thousands, I may add safely the hundreds of 
thousands, who were swept away by diseases engendered by 
unwholesome or insufficient food ; and not to recur to the 
awful sufferings of the thousands and thousands who had 
strength enough to struggle through this trial, and in the 
midst of this dreadful shipwreck were just able to reach the 
shore. 

With a rapidl}-- increasing population in all parts of the 
civilized world, the production of bread is obviously the first 
object to be sought after, alike by the statesman and the 
peasant. I scarcely dare give the calculation of the immense 
amount which would be realized in any great country, by the 
single saving of a bushel to an acre, in the quantity of seed 
ordinarily sown \ The same result would follow if an addi- 

* The annual amount of seed for wheat sown in France is estimated at 
32,491,978 bushels. [If 



CROPS. 147 

tional biisliel could bo produced in the annual average yield 
of the wheat croji. Even this simple result would be an 
ample compensation for all the labours and expenses of 
all the agricultural societies now existing in the world, and 
the premiums by which, in any country, the Government 
have aimed to enlighten and stimulate production. I have 
not a doubt that, under an improved culture, not only may 
there be such an increase as to defray all additional expenses, 
but to add an average increase of five bushels to an acre. It 
is impossible to exaggerate the advantages which would 
result from such an improvement. 

In looking back upon what I have written on the culture 
of wheat, it may not be without advantage to revert to some 
prominent points. 

The soil in which wheat is grown to most advantage is a 
deep aluminous soil, but not so clayey as to prevent its 
being thoroughly cultivated. It requires, therefore, a good 
mixture of calcareous or siliceous matter. A soil of excessive 
lightness or looseness is not favourable to wheat, and a hard 
and impermeable soil equally uncongenial. 

The soil cannot be too deeply cultivated for wheat. The 
roots of the wheat plant descend perpendicularly, and spread 
themselves laterally and broadly in search of food. It would 
be a mistake to plough too deeply for wheat at the time of 
its being sown ; and it is always useful to roll or tread the 



If we could suppose a third of this saved, the 

saving would amount to 10,863,959 bushels per year. 

Suppose an aunual increase of the crops of five 
bushels per acre, this would give au in- 
crease of production of 54,319,795 bushels. 

Add this, under improved cultivation, to the 
amount of seed saved, and the result 
would be 65,183,754 bushels. 

I believe, imder an improved agriculture, this is quite practicable. What 
economical object could be more worthy of the Government of a country than, 
by every means within its reach, to encourage such production 1 

L 2 



148 CROPS. 

soil after it is/SO\vii ; but it is desirable tliat it should find a 
deep mellow bed below ; and this is the case when it suc- 
ceeds such plants as madder or tobacco, or especially where 
the soil has been deeply and thoroughly trenched. 

Wetness is peculiarly unfriendly to wheat. Surface water, 
that remains long upon the land; or wetness, which stagnates 
and remains long in the soil, are highly prejudicial to wheat. 
This gives the great value to the Dcansten system of draining 
and subsoil-ploughing. The water which falls in such case 
soaks immediately into the ground and is carried off. Where 
there is no subsoil-ploughing, and where the soil is of a 
retentive nature, the laying up the soil in narrow, slightly 
rounded beds or stitches, so that the water may pass off at 
once by the intervals, is highly important. 

Wheat land cannot be too clean, or be kept too clean from 
weeds ; and for this reason it should follow a crop which has 
been kept thoroughly weeded. The small kinds of clover 
may be advantageously sown with or upon wheat in the 
spring. This will not impede the growth of the wheat ; it 
in some measure serves to keep down weeds ; it protects the 
ground, in hot climates, from the great power of the sun, after 
the wheat has been cut ; it furnishes some food for stock, 
after the wheat has been harvested ; and it enriches the land 
greatly, when it comes to be ploughed in. 

Wheat should be sown in drills four to six inches apart, 
or better dibbled, or sown in hills, which is not an excessive 
labour, where it is done by skilful and experienced hands. In 
any event, whether sown broad-cast or in drills, it should be 
cultivated, and the ground carefully stirred by the harrow 
or the scarifier. 

Early sowing is strongly recommended in warm climates, 
so that the crop may come off before the extreme heats of 
summer ; but it is advised, in cold climates, to sow wheat 
quite late, that it may not make any, or but slight progress, 
so as to be exposed to the severe frosts of winter, but be 



CROPS. 149 

ready to show itself with the earliest spring. The climate of 
Great Britain is deemed peculiarly favourable to wheat, be- 
cause of its equable temperature, and its humidity. The 
plant grows a longer time, and is longer in maturing itself. 
The harvest in England and Scotland comes off ordinarily a 
month later than in the United States, where the extreme 
heat of summer often renders the plant prematurely ripe. 
The wetness of the climate in the former, however, makes 
the harvest more precarious. 

Of manures for wheat, it is ordinarily best that they should 
be given with the preceding crop. Green, or coarse manures 
from the stables, applied directly to wheat, are universally 
deemed objectionable. The effects of lime on the soil may 
be considered as threefold ; first, in dividing a tenacious soil, 
and rendering it friable ; second, in preparing the vegetable 
matter in the soil for the nutrition of the plant ; and, in the 
third place, some portion of it may be taken up with advan- 
tage by the plant itself The principle of potassium in the 
soil, in the form of common wood-ashes or otherwise, seems 
always highly beneficial, and almost indispensable. Liquid 
manure, urine diluted with water, is sometimes applied to 
the growing crop with great advantage. I have known also 
the water in which flax has been rotted applied with remark- 
able success. 

The harvesting of wheat should take place rather early 
than late ; that is, while there is a degree of greenness about 
it, rather than to wiiit until it becomes perfectly dry, as in 
such case much will be lost in shelling out. In the former 
case, it becomes ripe in the shock ; and it seems well esta- 
blished that, when cut early, it makes better bread, and 
more is obtained from the same quantity of flour. 

These are the great axioms which I have gathered in 
respect to the cultivation of wheat on the European conti- 
nent. The importance of the subject will be a sufficient 
apology for my pursuing it at this length, though I may have 



150 CROPS. 

added little to the knowledge which exists in my own coun- 
try ; and though, in many parts of the United States, as 
I well know, the practice may be already highly improved. 
When all its various uses are considered, the ease of its culti- 
vation, the great amount, under good and liberal culture, of 
its production, and the few accidents or maladies to which 
the crop is liable, and more than this, the amount which it 
returns in manure to the land, I know no plant or crop so 
valuable as that of Indian corn (maize), in countries where 
the climate admits of its ripening ; but wheat has the universal 
pre-eminence in public estimation ; its use in civilized coun- 
tries is daily becoming more general, and is taking the place 
of all coarser grains ; and, in a commercial view, as well as 
an article of subsistence and luxury, it will continue to occupy 
the highest place among the cereal grains. 

2. Spelt. — There is cultivated in parts of France and in 
Flanders, an inferior kind of wheat, called spelt (in French 
epeautre '), Avhich mainly differs from other wheat in that it 
retains the husk on the grain, until separated by a machine. 
It is in many places used for bread ; and in nutritive matter, 
as far as chemical examination goes, it bears a proportion to 
wheat of thirty-nine to fifty. It is said to exhaust the soil 
much less than wheat, but this point is controverted by high 
authority. It will yield well on a poor soil, and for this it is 
often chosen ; but it will afford, also, an ample compensation 
for good treatment. The straw is stiifer than that of wheat, 
and though harder, is preferred by cattle. It will bear to be 
cropped once or tAvice in its early growth for green forage, 
and is deemed excellent for this purpose. It endures the 
drought like rye, and will grow well upon lands which are too 
light and dry for wheat. The difference between the weight 
of the grain of spelt with its husk on, compared with wheat, 

• Triticina spclta. 



CROPS. 151 

is as forty-two to seventy-six ; and the ordinary difference 
in price is as seventy-two to one hundred, allowing for tlio 
extra expense in hulling and grinding. Under very good 
cultivation it is stated to yield about thirty bushels to the 
aero, with the hull, or in the husk. 

Of this grain there are two kinds ordinarily cultivated, the 
red and the white. Some of each kind are bearded, and 
some without beard ; and there is a spring and an autumn 
variety, although, by careful selection of the earliest ripe, the 
autumnal is without difficulty converted into the spring- 
variety. It is said, likewise, that under a negligent culture, 
the beardless will become bearded, and that under a good 
culture and a rich soil, the bearded will lose its awns. The 
red variety is preferred, as more hardy, and suifering less 
from wet or cold, as giving a stronger and more abundant 
straw, being less subject to disease, and producing a better 
flour. 

The quantity of seed required to an acre is double of that 
for wheat, because it is sown in the husk. A crop of hemp 
is sometimes taken from the land ; if this is got off early, 
turnips are then sown, and after the turnips, spelt. If the 
crop of potatoes are kept clean, spelt is sometimes sown after 
them ; in which case the land is not ploughed, but simply 
dragged or scarified, and the spelt merely harrowed in. If 
it is deemed necessary to manure the land in such case, the 
manure is spread on the potato ground, the seed then sown, 
and both thoroughly harrowed in. 

With the husks adhering to the grain, spelt is said to 
furnish a substantial and excellent provender for horses. 
The straAv being very strong, it is much sought after for 
the manufacture of hats. It is not a saleable grain in the 
markets, because wheat is generally preferred, and because 
the millers object to the grinding of it. 

I have heard of a crop of ninety-four bushels to the acre, 
but I lack faith in results so extraordinary. In comparing 



152 CROPS. 

this with wheat, it is to bo remembered that this was mea- 
sured in the husk. 

The proportions of spelt in the straw, without taking any 
account of the stubble, are given as follows : — 

Grain-clean 46*38 

Husks 1505 

Straw 86-43 

Loss 214 



10000 



And 100 parts of the grain in the husk give as follows : — 

Grain -clean 72-96 

Husks 23-67 

Loss 3-37 

These results can be considered only as approximations to 
exactness, as they must be affected by a variety of circum- 
stances. 

There is a smaller and inferior kind of spelt ', which is 
only cultivated where it is thought too poor even for rye or 
oats, but which yields very little. The flour of this grain is 
excellent for some domestic purposes, and it is thought to 
pay the little care and labour which it receives. 

I have often remarked, that there are certain persons or 
classes in society occupying a humble and menial condition, 
whose services are indispensable, and of whose services all 
classes are always ready to avail themselves. Their services 
likewise are always tendered willingly, and with a demand only 
for the smallest compensation. We consider them as doomed 
to occupy the condition in which they are placed ; and we 
never think, under any circumstances, by any pains-taking 
in their education, or any indulgence of those aspirations to 

' Tnticiim monocociiin. 



CROPS. 153 

rise wliicli Ave sometimes sec kindling in them and almost as 
suddenly going out, like the sparks of an expiring fire, of 
raising them to a higher condition, or of placing them among 
their aristocratic superiors. This seems to me precisely the 
condition of spelt-wheat and of rye. They are in themselves 
most valuable grains, hut we never think of giving them any 
but the hardest treatment. They make very fair returns in 
a poor soil, without manure, and with very negligent treat- 
ment. We pretend to think that they are adapted only to such 
soils, or such soils adapted to them ; but we do not take the 
pains to see what they Avould do, or what they would become 
under the best cultivation. I believe it is with plants as I 
believe it is with men, that in the works of the Creator, the 
law of progress is applicable to every living thing ; that the 
maximum of improvement, if improvement be not absolutely 
infinite, has yet in no case been reached ; that it is the great 
duty of life to see what can be done in this respect for our- 
selves and for others ; and that in the vegetable and the 
animal world, in the physical and the intellectual nature, we 
know as yet little of what culture and education may do for 
the most humble and the most despised. 

I hope the kindness of my readers will pardon me if for a 
moment I extend these moral analogies. The more the cul- 
tivation of what is called the inferior grains is extended and 
improved, the more the wealth of the community is increased, 
the more are the means of subsistence and the comforts of 
the poor extended, and the more enlarged become our means 
of improving the culture of the superior grains. The superior 
classes in the community, who now too often look with 
jealousy upon the advancement, and, as they sometimxcs term 
them, the encroachments of the lower classes, in this respect 
commit a great error. In proportion to the improvement 
and elevation of the community around them, is their own 
condition improved. All intellectual and moral good is of a 
self-multiplying and reflective character. Would a farmer 



154' ciiors. 

take credit for leaving a large portion of his farm in a rude 
and neglected condition ? It might place his improvements 
in a stronger light by contrast, but would it be a contrast in 
any respect to his advantage ? Would it not be much more 
to his wealth, honour, pride, and happiness, to see every part 
of his domain presenting the brilliant indications of enlight- 
ened and improved culture ? and would the improvements 
and productiveness of the inferior in any respect prejudice 
those of the better portions ? 

S. Rye. — Rye is very extensively cultivated in Europe — 
in Great Britain to a small extent ; on the Continent, and 
especially in the northern portions, it forms a principal part 
of the bread of the people. In Germany, in Belgium, in the 
cold and mountainous districts of France, and in Russia, it is 
their main dependence. To the Flemish it has been a great 
source of wealth through their distilleries, not only in the 
liquor extracted from it, but in the number of swine and 
cattle supported and fatted in these distilleries, and the 
abundance of manure in this way produced. There is a 
debtor side to this amount in the Pandora's box of evils, 
which such a product always opens upon the community, in 
the crimes, and misery, and degradation, of which it is the 
fruitful source ; but I shall leave this, as somewhat foreign 
from my subject, to the sober calculation of my readers \ 

' The distilleries in Holland, under the imposts of the Goveranieut, and the 
heavy duties upon the introduction of their produce into France, have been 
almost entirely destroyed. 

Each of these distilleries in the course of a year fatted 180 head of cattle. 
The amount of grain consumed at each of them was estimated at 276,705 
bushels. These establishments, besides the powerful stimulus which they gave 
to cultivation, in the market which they afforded for the grain produced, fur- 
nished likewise the most abundant supplies of the richest manure. 

There Avas this advantage also ai-ising from tliem, that in case of scarcity or 
famine, the immense supplies of grain which they always had on hand, were 
diverted from the manufacture of gin to the supply of bread for the people. 
This was giving the loaf instead of the scorpion. 



CROPS. ]5o 

The bread fi-om rye is not deemed so nutritious as tliat 
from wheat, but it is healthy and good ; and a distinguished 
German maintains that it lias a sovereign efficacy for persons 
whose nervous organization is exhausted or deranged by 
sedentary pursuits or intense application to study. 

Rye succeeds even on a light and dry soil. A clayey, or 
wet, or calcareous soil is not congenial to it. It grows well 
even upon a sandy soil, where scarcely any other grain will 
succeed. There is no grain cultivated which yields so large an 
amount of straw ; and this renders it valuable for litter and 
for the means of further enriching the soil. The straAv is valu- 
able for many other purposes ; and particularly for thatching 
both houses and stacks of grain. In France, vast amounts arc 
used in ]5rotecting their wine, when it is transported from 
one place to another, from the sun, and in covering other 
merchandi'Se on its way to market. It is said that four 
crops of rye do not exhaust the soil so much as three of 
wheat ; and, indeed, it has come within my own experience 
in the United States, that where rye has been cultivated for 
a considerable term of years successively on the same land, 
and early clover has been sown upon it in the spring, and 
ploughed in with the stubble in the autumn at the time of 
sowing for the next crop, the land, without any other applica- 
tion, has been in a course of gradual improvement, and the 
yield of rye continually increased. This is a common prac- 
tice among the best Flemish farmers, and highly approved. 

Of the rye cultivated, there is the winter and the spring 
rye, which differ from each other only in the time of sowing, 
excepting that the rye sowed in the autumn is more pro- 
ductive than that sowed in the spring, having a longer time 
to grow in. The rye, which I have described in another 
place as the St. John's-day rye, and which has been recently 
introduced into England, is known in France as the multi- 
caulis or many-stalked rye. It is sown in June, and will 
bear cutting two or three times for green forage, and yet 



156 CROPS. 

yield a good crop. It has the property of tillering or spread- 
ing from the root very abundantly, though it is maintained 
by some farmers that other kinds of rye, managed in the 
same way, would show the same properties ; and the multi- 
caulis rye sown late in the autumn loses this property. The 
grain of the multicaulis rye is not so saleable in the market 
as other rye, from its small size. 

The general cultivation of rye is so well understood, that I 
need not enlarge upon it. The best farmers advise not to 
apply fresh barn-manure to the crop, but prefer that which is 
decomposed, or that it should follow a crop which has been 
well manured and cleaned. It does not succeed well on 
lands subject to fogs, and, therefore, they cultivate little of 
it directly in the neighbourhood of the Rhine. The straw is 
abundant, but the grain does not fill well. 

The principal disease to which rye is subject is the ergot, 
in which the kernels of the grain become swollen, and form a 
black horny substance, well known among medical men as 
a powerful agent. This prevails much more in some years 
than in others ; and when care is not taken to separate it from 
the grain before it is ground, which can be done by careful 
winnowing or sifting, it is productive of fatal disease, driving 
often to insanity, and producing mortification in the limbs. 
The spotted fever, a species of plague which prevailed in 
parts of New England with such a melancholy fatality in 
1812, was attributed to the use of this diseased grain. In 
1816 it was fatal in some parts of Germany ; and it is said 
that in one case, where the soldiers in garrison were fed upon 
bread made from this diseased grain, a tenth part of them 
died. 

The subject of harrowing rye in the spring, so urgently 
recommended in the cidtivation of wheat, is a point con- 
tested by intelligent farmers, some strongly recommending, 
others as strongly opposing the practice. If the rye is far 
advanced, it certainly cannot be advisable ; but the authority 



CROPS. 157 

by whifli tlie pmctice is enforced is so high and practical, 
that I should be strongly disposed to try it, where the con- 
dition of the rye admitted of it. The spring-rye yields a 
crop inferior, both in quantity and quality, to that -which is 
sown in the autumn. I have spoken of the multi-caulis rye 
as a valuable forage when sown in June, and cut green. Its 
earliness in the spring would give it a value in the United 
States, but later in the season we have a substitute in Indian 
corn, altogether superior. 

The ordinary weight of a bushel of rye is from fifty-five to 
fifty-seven pounds, and the proportion of grain to the straw 
and chafl" is as 100 to 292. These proportions, however, 
must be obviously affected by the size of the plant, and the 
height at which it is cut. The culture of rye has seldom had 
half justice done to it. The colour of the product is, I believe, 
mainly dependent upon the nature of the soil in which it is 
grown. There is a prejudice against the black bread made 
in many parts of the country ; but the white rye produces a 
bread scarcely differing in appearance from wheat, and of 
great sweetness. For feeding animals it is of much value ; 
when cooked, one pound of rye is rated as equal to three 
pounds of hay ; and I have a friend in France, who would be 
esteemed as one of the best farmers in any country, who 
keeps a large number of horses, and feeds his horses upon 
rye-bread, whenever the relative prices of hay and rye render 
it eligible. 

4. Barley. — Barley is not largely cultivated in France, as 
Avine forms the principal drink of the country. The use of 
beer, however, is said to be extending, and consequently the 
cultivation of barley. 

There are said to be three kinds of barley, in reference to 
the season of sowing ; winter barley sown in autumn, spring- 
barley, which is advised to be sown as early as possible on 
the opening of the spring, and a kind which is sown still later. 



158 CROPS. 

under tlie name of summer barley. There is also another 
division into six-rowed barley and two-rowed barley, and 
these two kinds have their sub-varieties. There is a kind 
called the celestial barley, to which the husk is strongly 
attached ; but which, when threshed, becomes what is called 
a naked barley, the husk falling off. and the grain itself 
being semi-transpai'ent. It is a good bearer, but ripens late ; 
and in general, the naked barleys, though cultivated for soups 
or for domestic uses, are not much sought after in the mar- 
kets. There is another kind, called the coffee-barley, which 
is also a naked barley, the grain of which is stated to be as 
heavy as that of wheat, but the straw is not strong, and it is 
liable to be lodged. It is threshed with difficulty, and it is 
very subject to smut. 

The kinds usually cultivated are the common six-rowed 
and the common-two rowed barley. This latter grain is 
extremely hardy, and was found cultivated in LaJDland, as 
high as 67° 20' north. The winter barley is said to produce 
a much heavier crop than the spring-sown ; and where the 
spring barley is sown, it is advised to get it in as early in 
March as possible. The quantity of seed employed is one- 
third more than that of wheat. In many rotations it follows 
wheat ; and in such case it is strongly urged to turn under 
the stubble as soon as the wheat crop is removed. The 
neglect to do this for any length of time will be greatly to 
the disadvantage of the succeeding barley crop. 

The soil for barley cannot be too rich or too well culti- 
vated ; and it should be kept as clean from weeds as possible. 
No plant is more rapid in its vegetation ; and, therefore, if 
manure is applied to it, it should be in that decomposed 
state that it may be immediately available for the uses of the 
plant. This, of course, applies more to spring than to winter 
sown barley, which has a longer time to grow in. The soil 
for barley should not be a hard soil, or one a^t to be baked 
by the sun, as the roots of the plant have a tendency to 



CROPS. 15.0 

spread themselves, and therefore demand a loose and friable 
soil. Barley is often taken after potatoes ; and, in that case, 
as soon as the potatoes are removed, the land is turned over 
with the plough, and in the spring it is again lightly ploughed, 
the barley sown, and covered with a harrow. Clover is 
sometimes sowed at the same time, and a light roller passed 
over it. For barley sowed in the autumn, it is not objection- 
able that the land should be moist ; but when sown in the 
spring, the land cannot be too warm and dry. If the land is 
clayey and cold, the barley is not sowed so early as in other 
cases. 

The Flemish cultivation of this crop is extremely careful 
and liberal ; and no where are better crops to be found. Tlio 
polders in Flanders are those lands which, by embankments, 
have been redeemed from the sea, or from the floods of the 
rivers, and then drained by cross ditches. These lands, being 
the alluvial deposits of uncounted years or centuries, are ex- 
tremely rich ; and large crops of winter barley are grown 
upon them. Crops as good, however, according to the testi- 
mony of a distinguished farmer, are grown upon lighter lands, 
where they are carefully cultivated, and liberally manured. 
The brewers prefer the barley grown upon the light lands to 
that grown upon the heavier soils ; they find the skin of the 
grain finer, and the grain itself better filled. They prefer, 
likewise, the winter to the spring barley, because it weighs 
heavier. It gives, likewise, a larger j)roduct. 

In the neighbourhood of Ghent, where one witnesses the 
perfection of agriculture, the mode of cultivating this crop is 
thus in the main detailed by an experienced agriculturist, to 
whom I have already referred '. 

They plough the land twice ; they then lay it in beds of 
about five feet in width ; they then go uj)on the land with a 
cart of liquid manure, tlie horse walking in the furrows, and 

' V:in Aclbroeck's Acriculture of Flunders. 



1 GO CROPS. 

a good deal of the liquid of course falling in the furrows, be- 
tween the beds ; they then level the land with a harrow ; 
they then spread upon the field ten or twelve two-horse loads 
of rotted manure to the acre, and sow the seed upon the 
manure ; the next step is to clean out the furrows between 
the beds with a spade, spreading the soil taken out upon the 
seed, and at the same time covering the manure. The whole 
field is then trodden by foot, or by a roller drawn by men. 
The object of this is to retain the humidity in the soil, so 
that the seed may come up the better. When the seed is 
two or three inches high, it is then manured again, with a 
copious dressing of liquid manure, so that the field is in a 
condition to bear a crop of potatoes or of turnips the same 
year. Where the liquid manure is from the privies of the 
town, it is necessary to dilute it with water. The roots of 
barley, spreading upon the surface rather than descending 
deeply, it is not necessary to bury that or the manure deeply, 
although where barley is sown in the autumn, it is generally 
advised to plough it in with a light furrow. The crops in 
such cases are very large, averaging more than sixty bushels 
to the acre. The general cultivation in Flanders is most 
remarkable for its carefulness, its most abundant labour, 
and its liberal manuring. I do not know where I should go 
to find that which is superior to it ; and, indeed, it would be 
difficult to produce its equal. The farmers of the United 
States would be startled at the amount of manual labour 
bestowed upon their lands by the Flemish. A redundant 
population gives them the means of doing this with great 
advantage. 

It is well established that barley may succeed wheat, but 
wheat does not well follow barley. Turnips are often taken 
after barley, and a crop of rye after the turnips. Beans, 
likewise, follow with advantage a crop of barley. 

5. Oats. — Oats can hardly be said to be largely cvdtivated 



CROPS. 161 

ill France. They arc grown exclusively for tlie use of horses. 
This however is more in the north than in the south. The 
stimulating and exciting character of oats as feed for horses, 
renders them much more useful in a cold than in a warm 
climate. Oats are supposed generally to be adapted to almost 
all soils and climates ; but, like other products, they repay a 
careful and liberal cultivation. It is pretended by some per- 
sons, that a crop of oats ameliorates rather than exhausts 
the soil. This may be the case where oats are grown upon a 
turfy soil newly turned up ; that is to say, it may be the 
best crop by which to reduce such a soil into a condition for 
cultivation ; but that it otherwise enriches a soil can hardly 
be believed. It is the opinion, however, of many farmers, 
that sooner than any other crop, it avails itself of the nutri- 
tive parts of the soil, and reduces and extracts manure from 
ligneous matter contained in the soil, and that it will, better 
than any other crop, bear the application of coarse manure. 
I give these opinions, as I receive them, from good authority. 
There are several varieties cultivated, divided by the 
French into white and black ; by the Flemish, into white, 
yellow, and black. The white oat is most congenial to a soil 
which is humid, the black to a dry soil. The black oat in 
comparison with the white is represented as worth an eighth 
more for use ; that is, it is more nutritive in the same 
weight, and its cultivation less exhausting to the soil. 

The Hungarian oat, called sometimes the Tartarian oat, 
with all its panicles pendant on one side, is here found 
under two varieties, the white and the black. This species 
weighs heavier than the white, but not so heavy as the 
.common black oat. It gives more grain and more straw 
than the common white oat, but it requires rich and strong- 
land. 

The potato oat is very little cultivated in France. Indeed, 
it can only succeed under a far better cultivation than is 
here bestowed upon the crop. The Siberian oat is of early 

M 



162 CROPS. 

maturity ; the grains are yellow and very heavy, but the 
straw hard and coarse. The growth of this kind is so 
rajjid, that it is said to have been cut when young for a 
green crop, and afterwards yielded a good grain crop. 

There are two kinds of oats cultivated in France, known as 
winter and spring oats ; the former kind being sown in the 
autumn ; but this kind is only safe in parts of the country 
where the winters are mild, as oats are liable to be destroyed 
by severe frosts. 

The best crops in France, rating thirty -three pounds to a 
bushel, give about forty-eight bushels to the acre, but a great 
portion of the crops give much less ; and the average crop is 
rated at about sixteen bushels jjer acre, which indicates very 
negligent cultivation ; — an eminent French cultivator calls it 
detestable, but it would not be civil in a stranger to use so 
harsh a term. 

The value of oats, compared with hay, in nutritive matter, 
is rated at 100 to 175. It is strongly advised by the French 
farmers to use the oats without threshing, cutting up the 
grain and the straw together ; and by all means, to harvest 
the oats at so early a season that they may not shell out 
upon the ground ; as much is always lost in this way, when 
they are suffered to become perfectly ripe before cutting. The 
quantity sown to an acre is four busliels. 

The Flemish farmers obtain very large crops of oats where 
their land is cultivated with a spade, or otherwise deeply 
cultivated. With them, the white oat weighs heavier by the 
bushel, but the yellow oat gives the largest crop, especially 
on their meadows. They cultivate their oats upon stitches, 
of a width greater or less according as the soil is wet or dry. 
They say that oats require not so much manure as barley by 
one-third ; but they prefer manure that is well-rotted, that 
the plant may be forced as rapidly as possible. When the 
plant is a fortnight old, they a23ply a dressing of liquid 
manure. Such cultivation is evidently expensive and labo- 



CROPS. 163 

rious ; but, as in almost all other cases, extra carefulness is 
compensated by extra product. Sometimes the liquid ma- 
nuring- is repeated, and even more than once. In planting-, 
they are careful not to bury their seed too deeply, two inches 
being deemed ample. 

The great evil to which the crop of oats is subject, is the 
smut ; but for this as yet no preventive has been discovered. 
The sowing- of smutty seed is sure to produce it. 

6. Meslin, or Meteil. — The French have a custom of cul- 
tivating what they call meteil, but what is called in English, 
meslin ; that is, a mixture of wheat and rye. The proportions 
are not very exactly determined. If the land is more favour- 
able to wheat than rye, more of wheat is sown in the mixture 
than of lye, and the contrary. It yields a good crop when 
sown after wheat, when wheat following wheat would not be 
advisable. This culture is far from being universally ap- 
proved in France ; but some eminent farmers maintain that 
the crop is more sure than any other ; that it is not easily 
lodged, and that neither the rye nor the wheat is so liable to 
rust or mildew as when cultivated alone. It sometimes happens, 
likewise, that the season is not favourable to one of the kinds 
of grain, when the other yields a crop. It follow^s potatoes 
to advantage. It is generally consumed on the farm, in 
preference to being sent to market ; and it makes a healthy 
bread. 

7. Maize ; Indian Corn. — Indian corn {Zea mays), here 
often called Turkey wdieat, for what reason I do not know, is 
cultivated to a considerable extent in the south, south-west, 
and south-east of France, and very much in various parts of 
Italy. In the richest soils in Italy it presented an extra- 
ordinary luxuriance, but nothing could be more slovenly than 
the cultivation of it, wherever I saw it. 

The largest crops of which I could obtain information, 

M 2 



164 CROPS. 

were eighty b.usliels to an acre ; but tlie ordinary yield was 
very mucli less than that, and indeed was quite small. The 
kinds cultivated were of the small yellow flint variety. The 
larg-e kinds of gourd-seed corn grown in the southern states 
of the United States, or the kinds grown in the western 
states, an intermediate kind between the flint and the gourd 
seed, would find the climate and soil of southern Europe 
favourable, and might be introduced there to great advan- 
take, if, in the present condition of society, they were 
capable of any great improvement. They are little accus- 
tomed to use it for bread, having no knowledge of the 
modes of mixing it with rye or wheat ; but they use it as a 
kind of mush or pudding, called polenta. The expense of 
making it into food among the peasants is strongly objected 
to, as consuming both fuel and time. It is said that Napo- 
leon used to lament that a labouring man, whether mechanic 
or peasant, should be accustomed to have a fire in his house 
for cooking ; and the writer who records this fact, sympa- 
thizes strongly in this sentiment. That is to say, he would 
have all their food taken cold, and no time nor money 
expended in cooking. 

I wonder if it never occurred to these men, what an im- 
provement it would have been, if these labouring people, 
so troublesome and expensive as they are to be fed, and 
yet so useful and necessary as they are in growing all this 
bread, could have been turned out at night like the cattle 
after their yoke is taken ofl", to graze in the pasture. This 
would save bed and bedding, and house-rent, as well as food 
and cooking. 

Such sentiments must sound rather harshly upon the ears 
of American farmers and labourers, who are accustomed, 
even in the humblest conditions, to sit down daily to a 
nicely spread table, covered with a variety and abundance 
of bread, meat, and vegetables, to which are often added tea, 
coffee, and beer. The diet of the labouring poor in Europe 



CROPS. 1 G5 

is cliiefly bread ; and this is almost always furnished by a 
professional baker. During- my residence in Europe, I do 
not recollect a single instance where bread was made in the 
family. The want of fuel on the continent is a serious neces- 
sity. There are no labouring- people who live in half the 
abundance of the labouring people of the United States. 

I should extend my remarks much too far if I treated 
of many of the other smaller crops of the continent, which 
indeed present nothing remarkable ; and in treating of 
Flemish husbandry, I shall have occasion to speak of several 
valuable plants which are cultivated in common by the two 
countries. 

8. Buckwheat. — Buckwheat is grown very largely in poor 
soils in some parts of France, but it seems to be a mere shift 
to live ; and leaves only the regret, that land capable of a 
much better cultivation, should be thus appropriated. 

9. Millet. — Millet is cultivated to some extent in parts of 
France, but almost exclusively for forage, and, in this respect, 
desei*ves much more attention than it usually receives. I 
wish my countrj^men were more impressed with the extra- 
ordinary value of this plant. I know few plants which make 
a more abundant return, or which, when it is well cured, 
give a more nutritious forage, or one more relished by stock. 
On the intervale lands of the River Loire, where the crops 
are occasionally destroyed by an inundation, a crop of millet 
is obtained after the floods have passed off. The crop, under 
such circumstances, cannot be expected to be large, but it is 
obtained where no other would be. 

10. Clover. — The common large red clover, known in France 
as the Spanish clover, is cultivated to a considerable extent in 
parts of France. It has been a long time cultivated in the 
Netherlands or Low Countries, but was not an established 



166 CROPS. 

culture in France until about three quarters of a century ago. 
It is now considered as tlie foundation of good husbandry. 
Its foliage is abundant, and its large roots essentially enrich 
the land. It is sown in the spring, and its seed must not be 
buried deeply. The mode strongly recommended is to sow 
it on the wheat in the spring, immediately after the wheat is 
harrowed ; and then to roll the wheat with a light roller. 

It comes in in a regular course of rotation, but it is not 
allowed to occupy the land more than one or two years ; and 
it is advised not to repeat it again under three years. Some 
English farmers object to its recurring even so often as this. 
The effects of plaster of Paris or gypsum sown upon it, either 
when the dew is upon it, or the air is humid, is as remarkable 
as in the United States, though beyond a certain amount it is 
of no avail. The efficiency or mode of operation of this ex- 
traordinary agent seems, as yet, wholly unexplained. The 
French farmers understand perfectly well the advantages of 
ploughing in a clover stubble as a preparation for grain of 
almost any kind : for lands wliich are not very rich, it is 
considered only as an aid, and not as a principal manure. 

The small white clover, otherwise called the Dutch clover, 
constitutes an important element in the rich meadows and 
pastures of Holland. Clover is cultivated for its seed, in 
which case, the first crop is taken for forage, and the second 
for the seed. An eminent farmer speaks of his neighbours 
having refused to buy his clover-seed because his crop was 
small and thin ; but, according to his own experiments with 
this seed, it was preferable to seed from a crop of more 
luxuriant growth. The probability is, that it was more 
mature. 

Another species of clover, cultivated to a considerable 
extent, is the trifolium incarnatum, or scarlet clover, of 
which I have spoken in another place. This appears with a 
deep red flower, of a conical form and of extraordinary beauty. 
It endures for one year only. 



CROPS. 167 

11. Lucerne. — Lucerne is cultivated very extensively in 
France, and, indeed, may be considered as tlicir great de- 
pendence for green fodder. It is a general opinion that no 
plant will, in this respect, yield a greater return. Indian 
corn will yield more green food, but a crop of lucerne may be 
got much earlier. Three things are important in the culture 
of it ; one, that the soil on which it is sown should be rich ; 
second, that it should be deep, good in the subsoil as in the 
surface soil ; and third, that it should be kept clean from 
weeds. On my visit to an admirably managed farm, about 
twenty miles from Paris, where every thing indicated the 
most exact care and attention, and which might almost be 
cited as a model farm, the farmer informed me that his 
lucerne, Avhicli he cultivated largely, was usually cut three 
times, and gave him at the rate of fourteen tons to an 
hectare, made into hay. A French hectare is about two and 
a half acres, and this would be, therefore, a yield of more 
than five and a half tons to an acre. A dry season is par- 
ticularly unfavourable to it. It requires a rich, but suffers 
from a wet soil. 

Lucerne is sometimes sown among wheat or barley ; but 
the most certain mode of secimng it against weeds, is to 
plant it in narrow drills, and keep it clean by the hoe for a 
time, until it becomes well established. About eight pounds 
of seed, though this is deemed a large alloAvance, are sown to 
an acre. It will bear cutting three times a year, and will 
endure in the ground eight to ten j^ears. It does not come 
to perfection the first year ; and the circumstance of its 
being ordinarily continued in the ground for a term of years 
forms an objection to its culture, with those who wish to 
pursue a regular rotation of crops. Gypsum is applied to 
lucerne with the same success as to clover ; and the best 
farmers advise to harrow it in the spring, and, indeed, after 
each cutting, excepting the last cutting in the autumn. 



168 CROPS. 

12. Sainfoin. — Sainfoin is the next species of forage most 
largely cultivated in France. I have already spoken of it, 
but its value can scarcely be too highly appreciated. It is 
ordinarily cut only once a year, but iii rare cases, twice. It 
forms a most excellent feed, especially for sheep ; and the 
hay is of the best quality. It will endure for some years. 
They have had no success in cultivating sainfoin or lucerne 
in Flanders. The prejudice, to whicli I have referred, that it 
requires a calcareous soil, is, undoubtedly, not without some 
foundation. 

I come now to speak of the great crops, wdiich may be 
said to be almost, peculiar to France ; and if it be proper to 
estimate the agriculture of a country by the success of its 
peculiar crops, then the agriculture of France assumes a high 
rank. I refer iu this case particularly to beet sugar, wine, 
silk, and oil and fruit from olives. These are in France 
immense products, and of high commercial value. 

13. Beets. Beets for Sugar. — The history of the in- 
troduction of the culture of beets into France for the ma- 
nufacture of sugar, is well known. The presence of sugar 
m the beet-root, in an available quantity, was the dis- 
covery of a distinguished chemist ; and it is among the 
great obligations under which that science, cultivated so 
successfully, and with such distinguished talent, has laid the 
French. The Emperor Napoleon being cut off by the nations 
at war with him from those supplies of this article, which the 
people had been accustomed to receive from their colonies, 
conceived the plan of their supplying this great necessity from 
within themselves. It was much ridiculed, but he was not a 
man to be turned aside from any great project by any minor 
considerations, where success was possible : his object, to a 
considerable degree, was accomplished. Since his time, the 
culture and manufacture have been immensely extended, and 



CROPS. 169 

it bids fair to prove one of the greatest boons that was ever 
bestowed on agricnltnre. 

There are several kinds of beets cultivated, some of which 
have been cultivated for a long time. The common red or 
blood beet, ordinarily grown in gardens for the table, is a well 
known vegetable, not, I think, however, so highly appreciated 
in the United States as in England and on the Continent, 
Avliere it is much eaten. I have known this cultivated with 
great success for cattle, adding largely to the product of cows 
in milk. This species, however, is never used for sugar. 

The next is a very largo kind, growing almost entirely out 
of the ground, of a pink colour and white flesh, known com- 
monly as the scarcity beet, or mangel wurzel, attaining often 
a large size, and valuable for cattle. There are one or two 
other kinds, of a yellowish flesh, growing largely out of the 
ground, and which are considered even more nutritious for 
stock than the mangel wurzel. 

The beet employed for sugar is called the Silesian beet, 
u ith a whitish skin and white flesh, but the most valuable 
kinds have a green neck and yellowish tint on the top. This 
is full as valuable for the feeding of animals as any of the 
others, and is decidedly the beet selected for its sugar proper- 
ties. I have before nie the chemical analysis of the properties 
of the beet-root, but I am unable to derive from them a single 
practical inference. It may be hoped, that chemistry will 
presently tell us what particular soil is best :&tted to its 
growth, and what manure it peculiarly demands ; but this 
service it has not yet performed. It grows best in a deei?, 
rich, aluminous soil, not a sandy soil, not a calcareous soil, 
which is unfriendly to it ; and it is particularly desirable that 
the soil should not be liable to suffer by excessive drovight, 
so that vegetation is arrested. It will bear to be well ma- 
nured, but it is not an extraordinaiy exhauster of the soil. 
It returns indeed a large amount of enriching matter to the 
soil in its abundant leaves. 



1 70 CROPS. 

The land slioiild be well prepared, by being deeply dug or 
ploughed, and thoroughly manured, and the beets may be 
either sown, or planted in rows, of about twenty-seven inches 
apart, and the plants in the row about fourteen inches asunder. 
A great advantage comes from growing the plants in a nurs- 
ery bed, and transplanting them. This gives a longer season 
for the preparation of the land, and the increase of labour in 
transplanting is compensated by the increased facility of keep- 
ing the cultivation clean. The largest crop of which I have 
obtained any information, was about forty-nine tons to an 
acre, and this was a case in which they had been transplanted, 
Tlie ordinary crop does not exceed, and in many cases it falls 
short of, twenty-nine tons. The amount of seed required for 
an acre is not large, and every single seed produces four 
jilants. A large proportion of the beet-root is water, and it 
is generally estimated that twenty pounds of hay are equal to 
one hundred pounds of crude beet. In transplanting, it is re- 
commended, instead of doubling it up, to break off the lower 
end of the tap-root, and to plant it with a picker or a dibble. 

In the culture of the beet, many persons have been in the 
habit of plucking the lower leaves for their stock, maintaining 
that the growth of the plant was not injured by this abrasion. 
Experiments fully establish the contrary. An experiment 
made in Belgium shows, that where beets, from which the 
leaves were not plucked, produced 925 baskets of roots, an 
equal part of the field, having been plucked once, produced 
839 ; and another portion, which had been twice plucked in 
a season, produced only 539. The form in which this experi- 
ment is stated is not exact, as a basket itself is an uncertain 
measure, and the degree to which the plucking extended is 
not stated, but it seems decisive. The leaves, at the harvest- 
ing of the crop, furnish a large amount of forage. If left on 
the ground, they are reputed highly beneficial as manure, 
still more so if consumed by animals ; and cases are reported 
in which they have been closely packed away, where the air 



CROPS. 171 

was effectually excluded, and have yielded a valuable forage 
for the winter. 

That, exclusive of their sugar jiroperties, they constitute 
a valuable green fodder for cows in milk, and fatting <;attle, 
strongly recommends them to cultivation. They have this 
great advantage over turnips, that they give no disagreeable 
taste to the milk ; and that when in the spring, turnips have 
become corky, and potatoes sprout abundantly, and seem to 
lose in a great degree their nutritious properties, the beet 
preserves its freshness, even into June. 

It is not within my province to go into the subject of the 
manufacture of sugar, farther than as it is connected with 
agriculture. The greatest profits are realized where an indi- 
vidual unites in himself the character of cultivator and manu- 
facturer. The pulp that remains, after the sugar is expressed, 
is employed in the fatting of cattle and sheep. An eminent 
farmer, whose cultivation was of the finest description, and 
who manufactured a large amount of sugar, informed me, 
that he estimated his pulp, for the feeding of cattle and sheep, 
as constituting seven-twentieths of the whole value of the 
crop. It .Avas in June, in that most beautiful agricultural 
country, French Flanders, when I visited him ; and he was 
then using, and had large reservoirs of, the pulp from the 
manufacture of the preceding autumn. This he kept sweet 
and good in large vats, covered with sods and earth so as 
comj)letely to exclude the air, and guard against a change of 
temperature. In his case, the beets were not rasped, but cut 
into small and thin slices by a machine, and then exposed to 
a hydrostatic pressure. Nothing could be finer than the 
samples of sugar which he showed me ; and I admired, with 
great pleasure, the high condition of his sheep and cattle fed 
upon the pulp. He informed me that he obtained six per 
cent, of sugar from his beets. The chemists say that the beet 
contains twelve per cent, of saccharine matter, but the amount 
obtained does not ordinarily exceed five per cent. Whether 



1 72 CROPS. 

this proceeds from the imperfection of the manufacture, farther 
inquiries may determine. In general, tlie farmers are not 
manufacturers, but sell their crude product to the large manu- 
facturers in their vicinity. In such case, they usually make 
arrangements to receive back a portion of the expressed pulp. 
If otherwise, it would clearly be an exhausting process. It is 
mentioned, that the pulp constitutes a third of the weight of 
the crop. One hundred pounds of raw sugar gives seventy-five 
pounds of refined sugar, though it is stated that, by a recent 
discovered process, the sugar is bleached without being refined. 
The gentleman to whom I have referred above, states that 
the manufacture of beet-sugar is at present a highly lucrative 
operation. At first, when the ports were closed to foreign 
sugars, prices were such, that even with imperfect modes of 
manufacture, the business yielded a large profit. Afterwards, 
when the sugar of^the French West India colonies came 
into competition with it in the open market, the colonists 
found the competition too severe, and thinking themselves 
on the verge of ruin, they cried to the government for help 
and protection. The colonies of France were regarded as so 
important to its commerce and its navy, that the govern- 
ment laid a heavy impost upon domestic sugar. I believe 
governments never intermeddle directly in the control of 
human industry without doing somebody a harm ; and ex- 
cepting where allowed in some qualified cases as the rewards 
of inventive genius or skill, or as a security to the beneficial 
uses of capital, which otherwise could not be brought into 
use, monopolies of every kind combine all the elements of 
injustice. The effect of this impost was at once to ruin a 
large portion of the manufacturers of domestiq sugar, and 
arrest the progress of a cultivation destined to exert the 
most beneficial influence upon the general interests of agri- 
culture. The fixtures and establishments in different parts 
of the country fell into other hands, at a ruinous sacrifice to 
their original proprietors. The West India proprietors be- 



CROPS. 1 73 

camo more clamorous, for avarice was never yet satisfied with 
any concession, and the impost was still more increased. 
The elasticity of skill and genius have defied the pressure. 
Improved modes of manufacture have been discovered, by 
which more sugar is obtained from the same amount of the 
raw material, and obtained at a cheaper rate ; and in spite of 
the heavy imposts the manufacture is highly profitable, 
especially to those persons who bought already made to their 
hands the old manufacturing establishments. 

In 1842, the production of beet -sugar in France reached 
the enormous amount of 67,717,685 lbs. It had in some 
years, as it must evidently vary with the seasons, been even 
more than this ; and there is no reason to suppose that it 
has decreased. In some parts of the country I have seen 
several factories of recent erection. When the value of the 
leaves and the pulp for the fatting of animals is added to this 
actual creation of wealth out of the earth ; when the wages 
received by the innumerable persons employed in the culture 
of the plant, and the fabrication and refinement of the sugar, 
are also taken into view ; when the admirable preparation 
which this culture makes for the succeeding crops ; when its 
beneficial influences upon the commerce of the country are 
considered ; and when especially the whole is regarded as 
the product of healthy, well-requited, and free labour, and 
without even the smallest expense or hazard to human life or 
comfort, it is impossible to exaggerate the value of this great 
and increasing product. 

A highly distinguished agriculturist in France, perhaps as 
competent as any man to speak on this subject, has recently 
given to the public a statement in regard to it, which must 
attract particular attention. I shall give his statement nearly 
in his own words. A hectare (about two and a half acres) 
produces in the Isle of Bourbon about 76,000 kilograms (a 
kilogram is about two pounds and a fifth of a pound) of cane, 
which will give 9200 kilograms of sugar, and which costs in 



1 74 CROPS. 

labour 2500 francs. A hectare of beet-root produces 40,000 
kilograms of roots, wliicli will produce 2400 kilograms of 
sugar, and the expense of the culture of which costs 354 
francs. The cost of the cane sugar in this case is 27 cen- 
times, and of the beet-sugar 14 centimes only, per kilogram '. 
These are extraordinary statements, and will be looked at 
by the political economist and the philanthropist with great 
interest. There are few of the northern states of Europe, or 
of the United States, which might not produce their own 
sugar ; and when we take into account the value of this pro- 
duct, even in its remains after the sugar is extracted, for the 
fatting of cattle and sheep, and of course for the enrichment 
of the land for succeeding crojjs, its important bearing upon 
agricultural improvement cannot be exaggerated. 

The production of beet-sugar is not by any means confined 
to France. Large amounts are produced in Belgium, where 
I found most extensive manufactories, and in several parts of 
Grermany ; but in none of these countries is industry in any 
form unrestricted ; and a man hardly dares to be successful 
in any enterprise, at least to proclaim his success, lest the 
government by some impost or taxation should endeavour to 
avail itself of his success for its own advantages. It is thus 
that every where industry is checked and hampered, and en- 
terprise scarcely rises from the ground, but is seen fluttering 
along upon one wing. 

14. Silk. — Silk is another large product in France, giving 
a humble but honest living to thousands and Imndreds of 

1 " According to M. Peligot, tlie average amount of sugar in beets is twelve 
per cent. ; but by extraction they obtain onl}' about five per cent. The cane 
contains about eighteen per cent, of saccharine matter, but they get only about 
seven and a half. The expense of cultivating an liectare of beets, according to 
Dombasle, is 3r)4 francs. An hectare of cane, which produces 2200 kilograms 
of sugar in the Isle of Bourbon, and only 2000 in Frencli Guiana, demands the 
labour of twelve negroes, tlie annual expense of each of whom is 250 francs, 
according to M. Labran." — Commission of Inquiry in 1840. 



CROPS. 175 

thousands. Its production is g-reatly on the increase ; and 
the last year is reported to have nearly doubled itself. 

I know nothing- so remarkable in all its pecuniary and 
useful results as the product of this humble insect, the silk- 
worm, whose whole term of being is limited to five weeks. 
Nothing is to be compared with it in the perfection and 
beauty of the fiibrications of which it supplies the material 
and basis. What man, woman, or child's dress in any civi- 
lized community is not in some measure indebted to the 
labours of this humble insect ? and its bearing in a commer- 
cial view is an immense affair. In its pecuniary results, with 
the exception of the article of bread, few things come in 
competition with it. 

It is not merely the value of the product as it comes from 
the insect which gives it importance, but the extraordinary 
amount of industry and commerce which his humble labours 
set in motion. In France, as in other old and populous 
countries, every branch of industry is divided and minutely 
subdivided. There is in the first place the grower of the 
mulberry-trees, who does not always connect with this pursuit 
the production of silk ; but the leaves of his trees are sold in 
the market as any other forage would be. To him succeeds 
the grower, or, as he is commonly called, the educator of the 
silk-worms, who hatches, feeds, and manages the worms until 
their task is completed, and the cocoons are ready for the 
market. He is succeeded by the filator, or winder, of the silk 
from the cocoons, who prepares the crude or raw silk for the 
manufacturer. Here another and numerous class of opera- 
tives is set in motion ; the spinner, the weaver, the dyer, 
the pattern-former, the machinist, and the master manufac- 
turer, from whose hands it proceeds next into the hands of 
the wholesale dealer, and thence into the hands of the 
retail dealer, to say nothing of the various forms which 
it afterwards assumes under the agency of modists, dress- 
makers, furniture-makers, hat-makers, and the almost count- 



176 CKOPS. 

less operations and transformations wliicli it has to pass 
through in the various ohjects and forms of which it consti- 
tutes a part. Indeed, it would be difficult to name any single 
article which plays a more important part in an industrial, 
economical, and commercial view. 

The earliest production of silk is attributed to the Chinese, 
but the particular date of its origin is lost in the obscurity of 
remote history. There are many other worms which, in the 
curious transformations through which they pass, involve 
themselves, preparatory to their emerging into a new form of 
being, in a cocoon formed of the finest tissue. But it is the 
silk-worm, or, as he is sometimes called, the mulberry- worm, 
alone which furnishes a material of sufficient firmness to be 
converted into cloth. 

The production of silk in France is now carried to a great 
extent. Four years ago it was estimated at 1,200,000 kilo- 
grams, or about 2,240,000 pounds of raw silk per annum. 
The last year it was reported to have doubled itself, but, if 
this should be an exaggerated statement, the production may 
yet be set down as having vastly increased ; and, in a peaceful 
condition of the country, is likely still more to extend itself. 
It affi)rds the means of living to many persons, who must 
otherwise be without resource. In many parts of this culture, 
the hands of children avail as much as those of men and 
women, and thus the industry of whole families is set in 
motion. 

The silk-culture has generally been considered as limited 
to a hot climate, and some have maintained that it belonged 
exclusively to countries in which the vine could be success- 
fully cultivated. The silk made in temperate climates, and 
even in the mountainous parts of hot countries, where the 
temperature is moderate, is esteemed better than that pro- 
duced in very hot countries. It is difficult to prescribe the 
exact limits of this production. The mulberry will grow in 
very high latitudes ; but in such cases, it is liable to be 



CROPS. 177 

killed by the severe frosts of winter ; and it is indispensable 
that the season should be long enough, after the first defolia- 
tion, for the mulberry- tree to renew and perfect its leaves. 
The worms require a mild and temperate climate ; for though 
they have been grown or reared in rooms where the tempe- 
rature is, properly speaking, artificial, yet the expense and 
trouble attending such arrangements are a serious abatement 
of the profits, added to the difiiculties of managing such a 
temperature, and the risks to the lives and health of the 
worms. It is important to make every efibrt to keep down 
the expenses of the culture. 

The mulberry may be considered as the only proper food of 
the silk-worm. Various substitutes have been proposed by 
the Chinese and others, but wholly without success. The 
worms may be induced to eat, and may be kept alive upon 
other substances, but they will make no silk. The Chinese 
have moistened the leaves, and sprinkled them with powdered 
rice, chicory, and peas, and w^itli the powder of the dried 
mulberry leaves, so that the worms, in getting at the leaves, 
were compelled to eat of the poAvder, but it has been without 
advantage. 

The mulberry is not a tree of difficult cultivation ; but, like 
most other things, it makes a full compensation for particular 
care and attention. It will grow upon a poor, but it will 
flourish only on a good soil, inclined to sand, and not humid 
or heavy. It is advised to train these trees with an open 
head, that the foliage may be accessible to light and air, and 
not to feed from them until they are full three years old. 
The leaves must not be taken from them more than once in a 
year, and it is desirable to forward the first defoliation, so that 
the second growth of leaves may become quite matured. Mul- 
berry-trees are set out as ornamental trees by the sides of 
roads, and in the neighbourhood of houses ; or, where the 
business is pursued on an extensive scale, they are planted in 
rows at a few yards' distance, as is customary with our apple 

r 
N 



1 78 CBOPS. 

orchards. In many parts of Italy, in Lombardy and Tuscany, 
tlie vines are trained to liang in graceful festoons from one 
tree to another ; and when the rich clusters of grapes are seen 
among the green foliage, it would be difficult to find any thing 
of the kind more beautiful. An hectare of arable or meadow 
land in France, may be valued at 2000 to 5000 francs, or 
say, 400 to 1000 dollars ;'an hectare of mulberry-trees in the 
same locality would, in such case, be valued at 5000 to 12,000 
francs, or from 1000 to 2400 dollars. It is calculated that 
an hectare (about two and a half acres) of mulberry-trees, in 
full bearing, will produce sufficient foliage to supply the wants 
of the worms produced by ten ounces of eggs. This would 
give a product of about 22,000 pounds of leaves. 

The mulberry may be propagated by sowing the seed, by 
engrafting, or by layers ; the two latter modes are of course 
the only certain modes of securing the best kinds. The prin- 
cipal kinds propagated in France are four ; but they diffisr 
somewhat in their product, as the experiments of one of the 
first cultivators of silk in France, with whom I have the 
pleasure of an acquaintance, seem to show. Wliat appears to 
be wanted in a mulberry leaf (excepting for the worms in 
their first age) is a leaf of a good deal of thickness and 
weight. The four principal mulberry-trees cultivated in 
France are : — 

Le murier rose, or the rose-leaved mulberry. 

Le murier multicaule, or the multicaulis, well known in the 
United States. 

Le murier Moretti, a mulberry, which takes its name from 
a physician who first j)roduced it. 

Le murier sauvageon, or wild mulberry, Avhich is our com- 
mon white mulberry. 

The multicaulis is condemned in France in the strongest 
manner. It is of very easy cultivation ; it yields a great deal 
of foliage ; it produces a fair quantity of silk ; but it is con- 
sidered too watery, and to create disease among the worms. 



CROPS. 1 79 

One of the most eminent silk-culturists in France denounced 
it to me in no measured terms. The rose mulberry is upon 
the whole pronounced superior to all others. Its leaves have 
too much thickness and strength for the worms in their first 
age ; but in such case it is necessary to select the youngest 
and most tender leaves, and to moisten them with water. 
The leaves of the common wild mulberry are complained of, 
as fading rapidly after being gathered, and becoming too 
soon unfit for use. The time for hatching the worms should 
correspond as nearly as possible with the condition of the 
leaves, taking care that the leaves should be considerably 
advanced, as the consumption of them in too young a state is 
necessarily wasteful. Experiments have been made to test 
the comparative value of the different mulberry leaves in the 
jiroduction of silk — I refer to its quality and quantity ; but 
though conducted with much care, they do not appear to lead 
to any important practical results. 

The difference in the worms deserves attention, some pro- 
ducing a large, and others a smaller, cocoon ; and some giving 
consequently a larger return in silk than others. This dif- 
ference is considerable, some producing from a certain weight 
of cocoons ten or twelve per cent., and others eighteen per 
cent, of silk. The great division of races is, into those which 
produce a white, and those which produce a yellow, cocoon. 
It is said that different races of the worm are suited to dif- 
ferent climates, either hot or temperate ; and the results are 
always more or less affected by the mode of feeding and the 
care bestowed upon them. 

The principal of the white races of worms is called the 
Sina, and this species produces a very fine and beautiful silk. 
This species was imported from China almost a century since ; 
and its excellence has been maintained, and indeed it is repre- 
sented to be much im^^roved by care and selection. The silk 
of this species of worm is employed for making the very finest 
of the white silk fabrics. Ten to twelve pounds of the 

n2 



180 CROPS. 

cocoons produce one pound of silk. The cocoons are cylin- 
drical, round at the ends, with a depression or cincture round 
the middle. 

The principal of the yellow races is the Turin. This is 
known in Italy by several different names. The form of the 
cocoon is cylindrical, with a deep indenture or cincture round 
the middle, the ends are round, and the colour is a beautiful 
yellow. They are esteemed as among the best cocoons known, 
and furnish a very strong silk. 

The Cora is another celebrated race, which is reported to 
have been the result of a cross between two of the most beau- 
tiful and rich of the yellow races, the Turin and the Loudun. 
This species yields a large return of silk in proportion to the 
weight of the cocoons ; the cocoons arc much sought after, 
and sell at a higher price than any of the common kinds. As 
my limits allow me only to refer to the best kinds, I shall not 
enumerate others, of which there are several sorts, more or 
less esteemed in different localities. 

The ordinary life of a silk-worm embraces five ages, or four 
important changes. There is a species called the three- 
change worms ; but this peculiarity is considered as the re- 
sult of a diseased constitution, and the product is compara- 
tively worthless. The worms, by extraordinary feeding, may 
be forced to finish their feeding in some cases in eighteen 
da^^s ; but this at the expense of a great deal of trouble, and 
generally at the risk of disease. Their feeding is in some 
cases extended to fifty days ; but this is always owing to scanty 
and illiberal feeding, and the product is sure to be inferior. 
The period most to be desired, in which to complete their 
feeding, is twenty-eight or thirty days. This is supposed to 
depend somewhat upon the peculiar constitution of the race 
of worms which are fed, but more upon the feeding and ma- 
nagement. It is earnestly pressed upon the cultivators to 
commence the hatching of the eggs as early in the season as 
the condition of the mulberry leaves will allow it to be done 



CROPS. 181 

witli a certainty of a supply of food. The hatching of the 
eggs slionld be artificially forced, in order, as far as possible, 
to be contemporaneous, as where it is left to take place natu- 
rally, there Ayill be a diiference in the time of hatching among 
the worms of several days, which is an inconvenience to be 
anxiously avoided. It is recommended in the three first ages 
to cut the leaves fine, and for the very young worms in the first 
stage, they should be sifted. In order to success, the worms 
must not be neglected by day or night. In the first age 
they require twelve feedings in the twenty-four hours ; in the 
fourth age, eight or ten ; in the fifth age, seven or eight. The 
feedings should, in fact, be multiplied as much as possible ; 
as where, with a view of saving time or labour, the food of 
three or four times is given at once, the worms become dis- 
gusted, and lose their appetite ; a great deal of forage is lost ; 
and bad results are likely to follow. As overfeeding is in- 
jurious, so is fasting equally injurious. In order to ensure 
success, no neglect must be tolerated. Cleanliness in every 
department is especially important. The worms must not 
be crowded. They must likewise be occasionally assorted, 
placing together those whose progress and condition are most 
nearly alike ; and especially removing at once the feeble and 
diseased. The best preparation for their mounting, when 
their cocoon is to be formed, may be termed a small twig- 
broom, inverted and placed so that the upper part may be 
spread between the shelves on which the worms are fed. 
The cocoons after they are completed, reserving those only 
which are designed for the continuance of the race, are placed 
for the destruction of the chiysalis in steam, as being the 
most certain and effectual mode. The cocoons being com- 
pleted, and the poor tenant of this silken abode strangled in 
his o^vn habitation, now pass into other hands for the wind- 
ing of the silk. 

In many parts of Europe, among those who cultivate the 
silk-worm upon a small scale, some vacant room in the house 
is occupied for the worms, and very often some vacant barn 



182 CROPS. 

or building is used for this purpose at a season of the year 
when it is not occupied for other purposes. Where silk is 
cultivated on an extensive scale, a building is erected for the 
special purpose of raising the worms, called a jnagnanerie. 
The size of this building is of course to be proportioned to 
the quantity of worms to be raised ; and the quantity 
of worms to be raised must be proportioned to the 
amount of food to be obtained. Great losses are some- 
times incurred by a miscalculation in respect either to the 
forage or the worms. It is of great moment not to err on the 
side of too little provision for the feed of the worms, who in 
their last age consume with almost incredible voracity. Few 
things are more prejudicial to success than a deficiency of 
food, or subjecting the worms to fasting. 

The magnanerie must in the first place supply ample room 
for the worms : they must not be crowded. It requires a 
separate room for tlie hatching of the worms and their feed^ 
ing during-the first age. It must be furnished with sufficient 
means for heating the apartments in which they are kept. 
It must have the means of complete ventilation, without 
bringing draughts of cold air directly upon them. It must 
be capable of being closed or opened at pleasure, in order to 
regulate the temperature, which is of great moment. It must 
be light also, and be capable of being lighted in the evening ; 
for they like the light, and if success is looked for they are 
not to be neglected either by day or night. 

It has been supposed that the silk -worms are injuriously 
affected by noise ; but this is now deemed an error, as no 
organs of hearing have been discovered. They are injuriously 
affected by noxious odours, and this must be guarded against. 
They are likewise much affected by changes of temperature, 
and especially by a close and confined atmosphere. The 
former may to a certain extent be regulated by artificial 
means, and the latter by ventilation. The tables on which 
the worms are placed, may be made of canvass on an endless 
roller, and the worms being induced by fresh leaves to rise 



CKOPs. 183 

iq)Oii a netting made of twine set in a frame, may be lifted 
up, and by turning tlie canvass, the litter may be easily re- 
moved, and the worms replaced. The legs of the tables on 
which the worms are fed, should be set in water, so as to pre- 
vent the access of ants, which are destructive to them ; and 
every pains must be taken to keep off birds, rats, and mice, 
which have no hesitation in destroying these industrious 
creatures. 

There are several serious diseases to which the worms are 
subject, and some of a fatal character. They are supposed in 
general to owe their origin to neglect, to insufficient or irre- 
gular feeding, to Avant of ventilation, to neglect of cleanli- 
ness, or to too much crowding. The disease called the mus- 
cardine is of all others the most dreaded, as it is contagious 
and generally fatal. The causes of it have not yet been 
ascertained, and no effectual remedy has been discovered. If 
it is not caused by neglect, yet the only hope of preventing it 
is by the most attentive and exemplary care. Where it has 
once prevailed, it is liable to re- appear ; and in such places it 
is advised as the only certain preventive to suspend for a 
time the raising of the worms. It shows itself at all ages of 
the worms. A large premium has been offered by the Agri- 
cultural Society of France for the discovery of an effectual 
remedy or preventive ; but as yet without success. The 
Avorms are often injuriously affected by thunder-storms or a 
highly electrical atmosphere ; but no human skill affords any 
protection against this. 

Many experiments have been made to get two crops of 
worms and silk in a season ; but by the most experienced 
feeders such attempts are entirely disapproved. I shall not 
attempt any calculation of expenses or profits, these must so 
vary in different places from the difference in the cost of 
labour and of land. First, it may be said of the silk culture 
that the principal labour which it requires occurs at a season 
when other agricultural operations are not of a pressing cha- 



184 CROPS. 

racter, and the season is one of comparative leisure. In tlie 
next place, the farni-bnildings, which may be occupied where 
the climate admits of it as a rnagnanerie, are likely to he va- 
cant, preparatory to receiving the crops. Next, the trees 
being once planted and matured, and the rnagnanerie esta- 
blished, they require but little care to preserve them in con- 
dition, and a large portion of the expense is incurred. In the 
last place, the work is of a character to give healthful, useful, 
and interesting employment to the younger and female parts 
of a family, whose expenses are sure to go on, but whose 
labour, for want of some such occupation, might otherwise be 
lost. The article when produced is imijerishable, and at pre- 
sent may be considered as sure of a market. 

I have only noted the outlines of the subject. I must not 
go more into detail ; but the whole process is simple and in- 
telligible, and the details are easily attainable. There is no 
extraordinary ingenuity in the apparatus or machines con- 
nected either with the management of the worms or the un- 
winding of the cocoons ; but I found with Mr. Robinet, of 
Paris, who has distinguished himself by his attention to 
this subject, a small and ingenious machine for testing the 
strength of the raw silk. There was a graduated index at 
the back of the machine ; a strong pressure was made on two 
threads of the silk suspended from the top of the index, and 
the degree of pressure or tension required to break the thread 
indicated of course its actual strength. 

I can hardly quit this subject without calling upon my 
readers to admire with me the wonderful products of this 
humble animal. The pecuniary value of the product is 
enormous ; its utility is unquestioned and universal ; the 
amount of industry which it sets in motion is immense ; 
and the splendour and beauty of the fabrications, of which it 
forms the materiel, are unsurpassed. 

15. The Vine. — The next great agricultural product of 



CROPS. 185 

Franco is that of the vine. The whole extent of land culti- 
vated in vines in France by the last returns was 4,929,950 
acres ; and there is reason to believe that this amount has 
been considerably increased since those returns were ob- 
tained. The total value of the vine crop in France, reckon- 
ing seven gallons of wine as required to supply one gallon of 
brandy, is estimated at 59,059,150 francs, or, in round 
numbers, 11,811,830 dollars, or 2,862,366/. sterling. It is 
supposed that six-tenths of the wine produced are consumed 
in France ; the remainder forms the subject of a lucrative 
commerce. 

In a moral view, one would at first be inclined to dread the 
effects of such a production upon the habits of the people. It 
would not be true to say there is no drunkenness in France ; 
but, account for it as we will, temperance is pre-eminently 
the characteristic of the French people, and I believe them to 
be without question the most sober of all civilized countries. 
In the rural districts, wine is the ordinary drink ; but this is 
not in itself a strong wine, and is almost invariably diluted 
with water. Much complaint has been made that such im- 
mense tracts of land are devoted to the production of wine 
instead of bread ; but, in many of the bread-growing coun- 
tries, a far larger proportion in value of the product has been 
devoted to the manufacture of a drink far more intoxicating, 
and much more fatal to peace, public order, domestic happi- 
ness, and all good morals, than the mild and ordinaiy wines 
of France ; which, when unadulterated, are the pure juice of 
the. grape, and have not the strength of common cider. I was 
in the vine-growing countries in the season of the vintage, 
when wine in the greatest abundance was free to all, but 
there was no more excess than at any other season. We 
could hardly expect these laborious people, whose chief solid 
subsistence is bread, to limit themselves to watei", and we 
could not but feel grateful that God had given them so inno- 
cent and delicious a beverage to cheer and sustain them 



186 CROPfc!. 

under their toil. It is not tlie use but the abuse of these 
gifts of Heaven, which constitutes the criminality, and con- 
verts them into a fatal poison. 

Various attempts have been made in different periods to 
limit the cultivation of the vine. In one case, after a severe 
scarcity, one of the Roman monarchs ordered the whole of 
the vines in certain provinces to be destroyed, and more than 
half the vines in other provinces ; and several kings of France 
have prohibited the occupation of land beyond a certain 
amount in the culture of the vine, that the people might be 
compelled to the cultivation of bread. Such interference on 
the part of governments in private concerns, and such 
arbitrary measures, seldom eflFect the desired end. The 
culture of the bread-grains, is, unquestionably, always of the 
first importance ; but arrangements of this hind are generally 
much better left to private interest than to public control. 
The principal objection to the culture of the vine is, that it 
is in no respect subsidiary to any other crop ; that it occupies 
the land permanently, without j)ermitting any other crop ; 
and that the vines require much manuring, though they do 
not always get it, Avithout furnishing the materials for j)ro- 
ducing any manure. Some persons have ploughed or dug 
in the cuttings and waste parts of the vine, and it is said 
with extraordinary success, but the practice is not much 
extended. 

The vines are ordinarily raised from cuttings in a nursery, 
and transplanted at one year old, generally in rows about 
four feet asunder each way ; but farther when it is intended 
to plough between them. Generally the land is dug with 
a spade ; the old wood cut away in the spring, and the 
new trimmed, leaving three buds only. They are then 
staked, and trained to these stakes, which are from four to 
five feet in height. At the harvest they are gathered with 
great adroitness, the clusters being cut with a knife or 
scissors, and carried to the pressing-house in casks or carts. 



CROPS. 187 

The wliolo process, afterwards, resembles precisely the manu- 
facture of cider, excepting that I saAV no straw used in 
laying up what is called the cheese, the stems of the vines 
su23plying the place of straw, in giving compactness to the 
heap ; and that there is no breaking or crushing of the 
grapes as of the apples, before they are put under the press. 
"The juice, as it comes from the grape, is always white, but it 
is coloured by leaving the stems and skins of the grapes in 
the vat with the liquor twenty-four hours after it is ex- 
pressed. The after-management of the wine,- where it is 
kept pure, consists in straining, and different drawings oif 
and bottling, very much. like the management of the best 
cider ; above all things, watching over the casks to preserve 
them from must or any offensive substance. 

The different kinds of wine take their names from the 
different countries or vineyards in which they are produced. 
I cannot persuade myself that the grape itself has not much 
to do with the quality of the wine ; but the constant reply to 
my inquiries was, that the character of the wine depended 
mainly upon the particular locality in which it was grown, 
upon some peculiarity in the aspect, or some unknown quality 
of the soil. I have no doubt the particular quality of the 
grape has its full share, and other circumstances besides those 
which I have enumerated. The adulteration of wines, their 
mixture, and their fabrication out of materials wholly foreign 
from the grape, are carried on, undoubtedly, to a great extent ; 
especially in the cities, as, indeed, in what country are not 
such adulterations more or less prevalent, as the condition of 
the market may render them profitable ? 

In France the appearance of a vineyard presents nothing very 
picturesque, though in the season of harvest it is extremely 
rich, as I have travelled for miles and miles through vineyards 
loaded with this delicious fruit. The fields in France are very 
rarely separated by fences or ditches; but many facts have 
come to my knowledge, and some within my own personal 



188 CROPS. 

observation, which convinced me that no where are the rights 
of property more scrupulously respected. In Italy especially, 
in the fertile plains of Lombardy, the vines are trained from 
tree to tree, sometimes covering a whole tree with their 
thick and umbrageous foliage ; and the purple clusters of 
the fruit, hanging over the tree in the richest abundance, 
remind one of some of the earliest temptations to which our 
frail race are said to have been subjected. 

In passing up the Rhine, after entering upon the high- 
lands, the base of which the waves of this magnificent river 
have swept for so many ages, one is absolutely struck with 
amazement at the examples of industry, labour, and enter- 
prise which every where present themselves, in the cultivation 
of the vine, wherever a favourable aspect presents itself. The 
steepest acclivities are walled up in successive steps or zigzag 
lines, from the bottom to the top of very high hills, so as to 
create or obtain some little flat surface for the planting of 
the vines, and to prevent the washing of the dirt from their 
roots. Where there is no soil, soil has been transported on 
the shoulders of men and women in baskets, for no horse or 
mule could possibly ascend many of these heights ; and 
where there has been no other method of securing the soil 
and the vine, these baskets full of soil have been placed, and 
there remain, that the plant may have a footing. The 
manure, too, to supply these vines, must be carried up, and 
the produce must all be brought down upon human shoulders. 
The labour performed here seems almost incredible. The 
German wines bear a high price, and these situations pro- 
duce those of the best quality. The celebrated Johan- 
nisberg wine is grown upon the banks of the Rhine, at a 
magnificent place owned by the distinguished Prince Metter- 
nich, and is said to be a source of great profit. The de- 
lighted traveller has the opportunity of at least feasting his 
eyes on this beautiful vineyard, and this rich and picturesque 
country. 



CROPS. 189 

A vineyard, if well cared for, will last an indefinite num- 
ber of years. The worst wines grown in France are repre- 
sented to be tlie most profitable, as they pay either none, or 
the lightest duties, and being sold at a cheap rate, they never 
want consumers. 

16. Olives. — The cultivation of the olive-tree, both for 
comfits or pickles, and for the oil obtained from the fruit, is 
considerably extended in France, and still more in Southern 
Italy. The extent of land appropriated to the growth of the 
olive in France is stated to be about 303,000 acres. The 
culture is limited to the southern portions of France, as 
the tree does not endure any considerable degree of cold. 
The money value of the product in France is estimated at 
22,776,398 francs, or 4,555,279 dollars, for sale; and the value 
of that which is consumed is reckoned at 23,102,841 francs, 
or 4,620,568 dollars, or 1,835,1 69^. sterhng. This is a great 
product for a permanent article. The oil- cakes left after 
the expression of the oil are considered as very valuable for 
cattle, and their value defrays some portion of the expense of 
expressing the oil. 

The olive groves or orchards in Southern Italy are very 
extensive. Looking out from the high grounds in the 
neighbourhood of Florence upon the enchanting valley of the 
Arno, it appears like an almost unintermpted grove of olives 
as far as the eye can reach. It is difficult to conceive of a 
richer, more beautiful, or more picturesque landscape than is 
here spread before the eye ; combining a charmingly varied 
surface, Avith cities crowning the summits, and white palaces 
glittering among the richest foliage, the river winding its 
gentle and silver stream through the whole length of the 
valley, amidst forests and fields of the deepest and most 
luxuriant vegetation. 

The olive-trees are of long endurance. I was shown some 
orchards to which tradition ascribes an age of eight hundred 



190 GENERAL VIEWS OF FRENCH AGRICULTURE. 

years ; the condition, however, cither from age or neglect, 
was not flourishing. More tlian a liiindred different kinds of 
olive-trees are mentioned in France, differing in the quality 
of their product, and in their adaptation to different soils and 
temperature. New varieties are occasionally produced by 
sowing the seed in nurseries. The trees are planted in 
squares in the fields, at the distance of five or six yards 
apart, more or less, accoi'ding as the soil is dry or humid, 
nearer to each other in the former case than in the latter. 
The trees should he well manured either with stable manure or 
compost ; it is advised to dig round the trees every spring 
and autumn. The field should be cultivated, taking care to 
guard against injury to the roots, with the plough ; and, if 
grain is sown, the portion near the roots of the trees should 
be dug in while green, and before the grain is formed. 

The great enemies of the olive-trees are the cold and 
certain insects. The severe cold in 1820 and 183(i destroyed 
a great many trees in France. Many insects infest the trees, 
which sometimes prove destructive, against wdiich remedies 
are prescribed like those employed against the insects wliich 
infest the apple-trees. How far it might be successful to 
introduce the cultivation of the olive-tree into the southern 
states of the United States, I must, after the above account, 
leave the parties interested to judge. 

The fig was growing freely in Italy in the open air, and by 
the road side. 



XVII. GENERAL VIEWS OF FRENCH 
AGRICULTURE. 

I have now gone over the principal crops produced in 
France, with the exception of some which will come under 
review in treating of the husbandry of Flanders, where these 
crops are grown with more skill and success than in France. 



GENERAL VIEWS OF FRENCH AGRICULTURE. 191 

I tliink my readers will have reached a conclusion to 
which I early arrived, which is, that the agricnlture or 
hnsbandry of France is a subject of much greater import- 
ance, and conducted with much more skill than is generally 
thought. There are several subjects connected with it upon 
which I shall sjjeak hereafter. In many parts, I may add 
in large parts of the country, the cultivation is inferior, 
negligent, and extremely discreditable. France, however, is 
not the only country to which these remarks apply ; but it 
must bo said of France, that in some of their principal crops, 
those to which their climate is adapted, to Avhich they have 
been habituated, and which they have found to yield the 
largest profit, no persons have advanced further than they. 
I instance only the production of beet-sugar, which must be 
taken in connexion with the residue or refuse of the manu- 
facture, furnishing so rich and useful an aliment for cattle 
and sheep. This production is enormous, and constantly 
increasing ; next, the production of silk, which furnishes so 
valuable and simple a resource for the poor, and which, fol- 
lowed out in its various ramifications, will be found to set so 
many thousands, nay hundreds of thousands, of industrious 
hands in motion ; and lastly, its production of wine, so im- 
portant an article of domestic consumption, and so large an 
article of commerce. I am not of opinion that perfection has 
been reached in either of these articles of culture, — for to 
what that is human does that term perfection, in any but 
the most qualified sense, apply ? — but certainly the culture 
of these articles is pursued with the most exemplary dili- 
gence and enterprise ; I may add, with as much diligence, 
and enterprise, and success, as are applied in any cultivation 
in any countiy. 

I shall be told, I dare say, that these productions are not 
bread, and that they are not articles of necessity, but of 
mere luxury, which man can do without. But they are the 
means of procuring bread ; and an acre of silk, or an acre of 



192 GENERAL VIEWS OF FRENCH' AGRICULTURE. 

sugar, or an acre of wine, will ordinarily procure more bread 
than an acre of wlieat. 

I am in tlie strongest sense of the term a utilitarian ; but 
I hold in utter contempt the narrow notions of utility enter- 
tained by a; large portion of mankind. We have it upon the 
highest authority, " that man shall not live by bread alone." 
If we desire to know what man can do without, how little is 
absolutely necessary to his being, and to the continuance of 
the race upon the cheapest terms possible, it is only neces- 
sary to go to ill-fated Ireland, and find whole families 
subsisting, growing, and extending themselves upon j)otatoes 
and water, with a flock of straw spread upon the bare ground 
for the whole litter to nestle in, and half naked, and covered 
only with a few rags that can scarcely by any art be per- 
suaded to stay on. I have never seen human nature in so low 
a state of degradation. I have been in the tents of the wan- 
dering gipsies ; I have seen the wigwams of the savages of 
America ; — but these tents and these wigwams are almost 
palaces compared with the mud-hovel of an Irishman. 

That is useful which is conducive to our subsistence, to our 
health, to our comfort, to our improvement, to our luxury, 
and to our pleasure and enjoyment. A man on Robinson 
Crusoe's island would be very foolish to cultivate sugar, or 
silk, or wine, if by doing so he could get no bread ; but if by 
these, as articles of easy exchange, he could procure bread, 
or whatever else might be necessary or conducive to his 
subsistence and comfort, and in such cultivation could turn 
his labour to better account, could in fact procure more 
bread than he could by the direct application of his labour 
to the growing of wlieat, who can doubt what course he should 
adopt ? 

It is frivolous to talk of that only as useful which alone is 
necessary to our subsistence, or to the supply of the ordinary 
wants of life. The pleasures of the taste are worth some- 
thing. Even the most humble being, above the condition of 



GENERAL VIEWS OF FRENCH AGRICULTURE. 193 

a savage, prefers to cook his meat to eating it raw ; and if 
by any means our food can be rendered more palatable as 
well as nutritious without injury to the health, we should 
gratefully avail ourselves of the power to do it. The plea- 
sures of the eye, with the various associations connected with 
them, are among the most refined which we can indulge. 
Articles of elegance and of pure luxury are articles of utility, 
and so are all that contribute to the pleasures of a refined 
taste, and the comforts, the innocent gratifications, and the 
beauty of life. In proportion as human desires and wants 
are multiplied, labour is encouraged, and human genius is 
stimulated. There is no hope of raising any people above 
the condition of savages, or of the humble animals with which 
they consort, whose ambition is satisfied Avith potatoes and 
water. 

The philanthropic mind, in the rapid progress of human 
art, is delighted to see what are called the luxuries of life 
extending themselves. What has hitherto been the exclu- 
sive property of the rich, we should be happy to see become 
the universal and easily-attainable property of the poor. It 
is not many years since, a pair of silk hose was considered a 
present fit to be made to a queen, and a silken robe was a 
treasure hardly to be aspired to even by princes. I have seen 
immense improvements already made in the dress of the hum- 
bler classes, those by whose labour the luxuries of the rich 
are supplied ; and I should be glad to see every poor Irish or 
Scotch peasant girl, who are now so often seen in their 
natural hose soiled and torn, able to wear stockings which 
even queen Elizabeth might have envied, and going to their 
churches in silks and satins, which should dazzle the eye by 
their lustre, and give delight by the beauty and exquisite 
taste of their fabric. Machinery is now everywhere lending 
its wonderful creative powers and facilities in multiplying 
the most useful and beautiful fabrics, and it is delightful to 
see generally the humbler classes so mu^h better clothed, 





194 FARM NEAR VERSAILLES. 

and their houses so much better furnished than they were 
even within the memory of many persons now living. Every 
advance and improvement of this description promotes care, 
caution, and cleanliness. Cleanliness of person has a direct 
affinity with purity and refinement of mind and taste. 
Whatever conduces to this refinement, conduces to self- 
respect ; and self-respect will be found ever one of the great 
elements and instruments of virtue. 



XVIII. FARM NEAR VERSAILLES. 

I shall hereafter recur to the subject of the agriculture of 
France ; but I may in this place say, that I have met exam- 
ples of farming in France, which for excellence of culture and 
arrangement, and the success of the farming, are no where 
within my knowledge exceeded. A farm in the neighbour- 
hood of Versailles, with the intelligent proj)rietor of which I 
had the pleasure of an intimate acquaintance, in its excellent 
management may be considered as a model farm. It consists 
of about 700 acres. The husbandry is of a mixed kind ; a 
large milking stock is kept on the farm, which though not 
reared on the farm, are very carefully selected ; and kept 
and fed in well-arranged and capacious stables, where the 
best arrangements by gutters and cisterns are made for col- 
lecting and saving all the liquid as well as all the solid 
manure. Abundant croj^s of lucerne are grown both for 
green feeding and hay, and likewise of sainfoin. Grood crops 
of wheat are likewise raised, and of cobza. Carrots are 
cultivated extensively for the stock ; and potatoes especially 
for the manufacture of starch. This manufacture, very sim- 
ple in its character, constitutes a large object of attention ; 
and what with the potatoes grown upon the place, and those 
which are purchased, more than one hundred thousand 
bushels are used in this manufacture in the course of the 



FARM ACCOUNTS. 195 

year. The refuse water or liquor from this fabrication is 
first collected in tanks or open reservoirs, where it makes a 
considerable deposit from the matter still floating in it. The 
liquid portions are conveyed by small channels or canals 
on to the grass-fields, which are thus irrigated, and the solid 
portions are taken out and spread. The effect of this 
manure is extremely beneficial, and it scarcely difl^ers in 
strength from the best animal or stable manure. 



XIX. FARM ACCOUNTS. 

At no place have I seen a more complete system of farm 
accounts than at this farm. The books are kept with the 
greatest accuracy ; so that the result is seen at once, and any 
specific loss or gain is traced to its proper source. Through 
the kindness of the owner, I was enabled to procure a form of 
these accounts. I subjoin it, thinking I can give few things 
of the kind more valuable to my readers. The great and 
almost universal fault of farmers is, that through ignorance 
or neglect they can hardly be said to keep any accounts ; 
sometimes merely a few memoranda in an interleaved alma- 
nack, or a few clialks behind the door ; or if they keep books, 
they are often confused, are seldom balanced, and the 
farmer never arrives at a result upon which he can rely. 
Often under these circumstances he finds himself gradually 
declining into hopeless bankruptcy, without being able to 
ascertain the most active and certain causes. The ship is 
filling, but he cannot detect the leak, nor consequently the 
means of stopping it. He may call all hands to work day 
and night at the pumps, but with little hope of saving the 
vessel until the fatal inlet is discovered, and that may prove 
too late. 

Under the system adopted by this excellent farmer, an ac- 
count is kept with every crop, with the stable, the cow-house, 

2 



196 



FARM ACCOUNTS. 



the sheep-fold, the poultry-yard, the labourers, and the farm- 
house. Each is regularly charged with every item on the 
debit-side, and credited with every return which it makes. 
The whole is then brought into a general resume ; an account 
of stock is taken ; and the books balanced once a year with 
the accuracy of a banker's clerk. 



Take for example his Winter 
Wheat : it is charged with 

Ploughing, harrowing, and rolling. 

Manures. 

Seed. 

Reaping, and binding, and stacking. 

Threshing, measuring, and storing. 

Transporting and marketing. 

Rent of land. 

Total of expenses. 

Expense per acre. 



In other columns are ar- 
ranged 

The extent of the land in wheat. 

Product ill grain and in straw. 

Product by the acre. 

Value of the grain and of the straw. 

Total value of the product. 

Value per acre. 

Profit of the cultivation, 

or 
Loss. 



The account of each crop is kept in this form in a book 
ruled in separate columns for this purpose. The history of 
the crop, such as the time of sowing and of reaping, is given 
at the bottom of the page ; and the average yield of the crop 
for the ten preceding years. 

The account of the Stable is kept in this form : 



Credits to the Stable. 



Labours upon the Farm- 
ing, &c. 
— Upon the road. 

Manure. 

Profit or loss. 



Plougli- 



Expenses. 

Feeding of the horses. 
Utensils and furniture for the stables. 
Equipages — Harnesses, saddlery. 
Carriages. 
Farriery. 
Waggoners and Ostlers — Wages and 

expenses on the road. 
Board of waggoners and ostlers. 
Extraordinary expenses. 



The expenses of the Sheep-fold are kept as follows. The 
account opens with the 1st of July, and finishes with the 
30th of June :— 



FARM ACCOUNTS. 



197 



Account is taken of the num- 
ber of 

Flocks. 
Sheep. 
Lambs. 
Rams. 



The next chapter embraces 
such as — 

Cost of feed. 
Medicines or drugs. 
Driving and folding. 
Hurdles, troughs, &c. 
Transporting and expenses of mar- 
keting. 
Shepherds — their wages. 
5, „ board. 

Straw for litter. 
Total of expenses. 



A second column gives the 
account of purchases ; and 
another of sales, during 
the year. 

A fourth column gives the 
number of flocks, sheep, 
lambs, and rams, at the end 
of the year. 

the several items of expense, 

Other columns give the esti- 
mated value of the flock at 
the beginning and close of 
the year. 

- Returns from the sale of sheep. 

„ „ wool and skins. 

„ the value of manure. 

„ the benefit from folding. 

Profit or loss. 



The account of the Cow or Milk establishment is kept in 
the same form : — 



Keeping of the cows. 

Cost of cows. 

Care of them. 

Utensils. 

Expense of the sale of milk. 

Litter for the stables. 



Number of cows, and their value at 

the beginning of the year. 
Expense of cows purchased. 
Number of calves. 
Returns from milk or butter sold. 

„ from calves. 
Value of manure. 



The Poultry-yard, embracing also the Pigs, is brought 
under a similar supervision, and the accounts of the whole 
year, in expenses and returns, are carefully preserved and 
adjusted. 

The account of Manures is likewise kept : — thus. 



Manures purchased. 
Transportation of manure. 
Straw for litter. 



Loading and unloading. 

Spreading. 

Oil-cakes purchased 



Compost heaps. 
Folding. 



198 FARM ACCOUNTS. 

The general expenses of the Farm are then brought into 
the account : — 

Overseers and their travelling ex- Wood and cutting fuel. 

penses. Measuring ground. 

Bookkeeper, stationery, and postage. Mole and rat catcher. 

Wages and clothing for the servants. Workmen, by the day or task. 

Journeyings, hunting, dogs. Expense of waggons and farriery. 

Time of horse for service of the Saddlery and harness. 

family. Bedding and linen. 

Insurance against fire and hail. Painter, glazier, carpenter, black- 
Taxes, smith, ironmonger. 
Utensils and furniture. 

The specific expenses of the household are next brought 
into account : — 

Kitchen expenses. Beer. 

Cellar. Products of the farm consumed, such 

Eatables. as milk and cream, eggs, poultry. 

Groceries. mutton, pork, potatoes, fruits and 

Butcher. vegetables, butter, and cheese. 

Baker. Presents to servants. 

Wood and charcoal. New Year's and Christmas gifts. 

Household and kitchen furniture. Care and medicine in sickness. 

Miscellaneous expenses follow : — 

For the poor, charitable gifts. Meat, bread, wood, medicine, board - 

Education of poor children. ing, clothing, fruits and vegetables. 

Expenses : — 
Civic charges at the mayory. For a public engine and carriage to 

To the police- ofiicers, or country watch. protect against fire. 

I have thus given the items of accounts kept on this excel- 
lently-managed estate, not so much to recommend the precise 
form in which they are kept, as to show their particularity 
and exactness. The great value of this extreme precision is, 
that the owner is at once enabled to discover what are the 
particular sources or occasions of expense, and to determine, 
if it should be necessary or expedient, what he may at once 
retrench or forego. The keeping of such accounts requires 
time and care, and, perhaps, in this case, they may be too 
much extended. But a careful and orderly arrangement, 
together with punctuality and exactness, so that the work 
may never get into confusion or arrears, will overcome much 



AGRICULTURE OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND. 199 

of tlie difficulty. The satisfaction and advantages arising 
from it, Avill be a full compensation for tlie labour and ex- 
pense which it may require. I cannot understand why on a 
large farm a bookkeeper should not be kept as much as in 
any shop or other trading concern. A French farmer or 
proprietor might often obtain the most ample assistance from 
his wife, or his daughters : for it must be said, to the great 
credit of the French women, that they are expert in such 
matters. They have great cleverness in business affairs ; and 
there was scarcely a shop or warehouse in Paris without its 
female bookkeeper or accountant. I met with a young lady 
at a friend's house, and I was told there were innumerable 
cases like it, who was the principal manager or salesman at 
a large wholesale lace establishment, wdiere goods to the 
value of hundreds of thousands were disposed of in the 
course of the year, and who received an annual salary of 
200^. sterling, or more than a thousand dollars. The highest 
confidence was reposed not only in her integrity but in her 
accuracy and skill ; and in private society I can answer for 
it that her mind was highly cultivated, and her manners 
agreeable and elegant. I hope I may be excused for saying 
that it is delightful to find an elegant young woman some- 
thing else than a mere fashionable plaything or toy. 

I only add, that I have the results of the accounts of 
this farm from 1816 to 1846, thirty years ; that the receipts 
vary considerably as products and prices vary ; but that, in 
not more than three years in the thirty, was there any loss, 
and in the other cases a fair and reasonable gain. 



XX. AGRICULTURE OF BELGIUM 
AND HOLLAND. 

I pass now to the agriculture of Belgium or Flanders. My 
remarks will embrace the whole of the Low Coimtries, 



200 THE SOIL. — THE DYKES AND POLDERS. 

Holland as well as Flanders. Though they differ in many 
particulars, yet they may be considered together. I entered 
these beautiful countries, beautiful in the eye of an agricul- 
turist from the richness of their crops, and the perfection of 
their cultivation, in the month of June ; and I confess my 
expectations, excited as they were, were more than answered. 



XXI. THE SOIL. 

A great portion of these countries may be considered as 
alluvial ; much of it formed from the recession of the sea 
and the elevation of the land ; much by the gradual en- 
croachments of the land upon the sea, as where, by the 
meeting of the tides with the streams of some of the great 
rivers, which here, by various channels, find their passage 
into the sea, a sand bank is formed, and presently, by 
successive deposits of mud brought down by the streams, 
an island or outstretching point is produced, which is 
gradually raised above the level of the tides ; and, lastly, 
by the actual embankment by dykes of immense tracts, 
which still remain many feet below the level of the sea ; 
and which form extensive basins or enclosures of almost un- 
surpassed fertility. 



XXII. THE DYKES AND POLDERS. 

The extent and magnitude of these embankments is 
matter of inexpressible surprise ; and one is compelled to 
ask, where and who are the men of such unconquerable and 
gigantic enterprise as to raise these extraordinary mounds ; 
thus to defy the ocean ; and thus to effect conquests, than 
"vviiichnone more brave, illustrious, or beneficent, are recorded 



THE DYKES AND PULDERS. 201 

in history, and compared with which, mihtary conquests 
seem to deserve only the execration of mankind. 

The external dykes are from 125 to 150 feet in width at 
tlie bottom, with spacious roads on the top of them ; and in 
several cases the water requires to be lifted twice before it is 
thrown into the sea. These immense tracts of land, which 
have been thus redeemed from the sea, are denominated 
polders. These polders are said to average more thaij eleven 
hundred acres each ; and that 486 polders, embracing an 
extent of 475,000 acres, are kept dry by 815 mills. The 
water to be removed is of course the fresh water from rain, or 
the water from springs, and some, doubtless, from the infiltra- 
tion of the sea. The work of one mill is required to keep 
six hundred acres sufficiently free from water. The whole 
amount of this poldered or redeemed land in Holland is 
represented to exceed five millions of acres, an amount to be 
redeemed from the sea scarcely within the limits of credibility. 
But the original erection of these dykes is not the whole 
amount of labour which they demand, — a demand which 
knows no interruption nor cessation. It is said, upon compe- 
tent authority, that had the original dyke at Walcheren 
been made of solid copper, it would have cost less than it has 
cost in its formation and repairs. 

I present here a sketch of the polder of Snaerskerke, given 
by Radcliffe from the government survey. This polder contains 
about 1300 acres, and was drained by order of Napoleon. 
" The creek, with its minor branches, by which the tide over- 
spread nearly the entire surface, is traced, to point out its 
original state ; but that has now given way to the regular 
divisions and arrangements marked by the parallel lines, 
which describe the present circumstances and appearance. 
The facility of this improvement is so obvious, that it is only 
surprising it should have remained so long unexecuted ; the 
banks of more ancient polders, which nearly surrounded this, 
having rendered it unnecessary to do more than to shut 



202 



THE DYKES AND POLDERS. 



out the sea at one point of influx, about 1450 feet in extent." 
Let us look next at the pecuniary result of this improve- 
ment. " The land which has been reclaimed by it was let 
for a sheep-pasture, at 25^. sterling, or about 125 dollars, and 
was thrown up by the farmer as untenable. Upon being 
dried by this summary improvement, the lots, of which 
there are one hundred, of thirteen acres each, were sold by 
auction. at an average of 291?. ISs. 4d each, or about 1458 
dollars, and would now bring nearly double that sum \" 




SKETCH OF THE POLDER OF SNAERSKERKE. 

A great work of this same kind is now going on, which 
is no other than to drain the Harlaem Lake, and lay the 
bottom dry for cultivation. This great work has been some 
time in progress by means of powerful steam-engines, and 



' Radcliti'c's Fland'ers. 



THE DYKES AND POLDERS. 203 

when completed will lay dry about 50,000 acres ^ The 
extent proposed to be drained is said to be seventy miles 
square. Another tract which has been laid bare contains 
18,000 acres. It is impossible to contemplate these mighty 
and beneficent achievements but with the most profound ad- 
miration. But if an immense labour and expense have been 
devoted to their creation, a corresponding vigilance, a vigi- 
lance most laborious, indefatigable, " and unceasing is re- 
quired to maintain them. The inhabitants of this great 
country sleep always in the immediate neighbourhood of an 
enemy's camp, and are exposed to irruptions and invasions, 
against which all human power may be unavailing. The 
recollection of the floods, which have occasionally broken 
away these barriers, and swept the countiy, is perfectly 
terrific. In the course of thirteen centuries^ no less than 190 
great floods are said to have occurred in Holland ; so that a 
destructive inundation may be said to have occurred as often 
as once in seven years, and the years so late as 1808 and 
1825 were marked by great floods. In 1230, 100,000 per- 
sons are reported to have perished, with cattle innumerable. 
In 1410, 20,000 persons were drowned ; and in 1570 an equal 
number. In 1717, the flood is reported to have destroyed 
12,000 men, 6000 houses, and 80,000 cattle. The sea has 
been known, in some cases, to have risen eight feet above 
the dykes. These events are certainly among the most 
tremendous in history ; and evince the extraordinary courage 
and perseverance of a people, who again repel the merciless 
invader, and bravely plant themselves directly upon the 
recovered field. 

This temerity finds a counterpart in those cities which I 



1 It is stated, that in order to exhaust the lake, 3000 millions of tons of 
water must be raised ; and in order to keep it dry, 54,000,000 of tons must 
be raised annually ; and sometimes 20,000,000 of this in one or two mouths. 
What a gigantic project ! 

2 Frou! 51(; to 1825. 



204 THE WATER MACHINERY OR MILLS. 

visited, crowded with a busy, gay, and reckless population, 
whicli have their foundation at the foot of mountains, still 
pouring out their immense volumes of flame, and rolling down 
their sides their resistless torrents of liquid fire, upon the 
crust scarcely cold, which has suddenly buried cities teeming 
with life and resounding with the noise of business, or the 
shouts of pleasure, in the very hour of their living burial. 



XXIII. THE WATER MACHINERY OR MILLS. 

These countries have to exercise a double guard ; the first 
against the irruption of the ocean, and the second against 
the overflowing of the great rivers, which, fed by streams 
from mountains covered with eternal snows, here divide into 
many branches on their way to the ocean ; and likewise from 
the rain which falls, and has no way of escape but as it is 
pumped up and turned ofi" into the rivers or the sea. In 
some cases, six, eight, and ten feet of water have been re- 
moved ; it is stated " that in one case, a depth of more than 
thirteen feet required to be removed on land more than eight 
feet below the high water of the river into which it was 
necessary it should be discharged. It was raised into a 
reservoir, and let into the river at low water. The water 
required to be raised by successive lifts twenty-two feet, not 
an uncommon lift in Holland." The machines by which this 
water is raised are windmills, made with extraordinary care 
and expense, and presenting to the unaccustomed eye a pecu- 
liar but not unpleasing appearance. I counted more than 
two hundred in sight at one time, and was told that more 
than four hundred might be seen. These are variously con- 
structed, some of them with a spiral screw working in a box 
to which the screw was exactly fitted, and by which large 
amounts of water were forced up without any heavy pressure 
upon the machinery. In other cases, the water was lifted 



FLEMISH AGRICULTURE. 205 

with a simple paddle-wheel working in a common trough. 
It is stated that one mill will free 600 acres from water ; but 
it is obvious that this must depend ujion various circumstances, 
such as the quantity of water to be removed, and the kind of 
machinery employed. The most constant vigilance is re- 
quired to take advantage of all the wind that blows. To 
give some idea of the expense of these operations, a mill is 
said to cost from 8000 to 14000 dollars, or from 1600^. to 
2800^. sterling, and its operation costs 800 dollars or 60^. 
sterling a year. Many of the persons who have the care of 
these mills live in them with their families. 

These are all windmills. Steam-engines would probably 
be as little expensive, and more under command. Most of 
these mills were erected before the use of steam in this way 
was known ; but a reason given for preferring wind to steam 
is, that, as Holland has no coal, in the event of war she 
might be without fuel, and consequently unable to work 
steam-engines, the disastrous consequences of which it is 
not necessary to dwell upon. 

Such are the mighty works, as well indeed they may be 
called so, which arrest the admiration of the visitor to this 
reclaimed and fertile region, so marked by the most extra- 
ordinary enterprise. They inspire a profound sentiment of 
the hardihood and enterprise, the courage and indefatigable 
perseverance of the people who imdertook, achieved, and have 
maintained them. 



XXIV. FLEMISH AGRICULTURE. 

The agriculture of Flanders is chiefly arable. To give a 
detailed account of its various crops and their culture, would 
be to compose a large work ; and I shall therefore limit my- 
self to noticing those peculiarities in their practice by which 
their cultivation is distinguished, with such remarks upon 



206 FLEMISH AGRICULTURE. 

particular crops as seem interesting and useful. Flanders 
itself is to some extent a redeemed country ; and they have 
also their polders and embankments, canals and dykes. 

I begin by saying that the agriculture of Flanders is supe- 
rior to that of any country which I have visited. I do not 
say that in England, Scotland, France, and Switzerland, I 
have not seen single farms as well cultivated as any I have 
seen in Flanders ; certainly in the Lothians in Scotland, in 
Northumberland, in Norfolk, in Lincolnshire, in Bedfordshire, 
in Berkshire, in Cambridgeshire, in Staffordshire, and in other 
places, I could single out particular farms and considerable 
districts where the cultivation is carried to a high degree of 
perfection and productiveness ; but taking into view the 
large portion of Flanders which I visited, for neatness, exact- 
ness, and thoroughness of cultivation, for the evenness and 
magnificence of the crops, for the propriety and exactness 
of the rotation, for the economy and excellent modes of 
applying their manures, and for the obvious and distinguished 
improvements made in the soils, this country seems unsur- 
passed. It is not a little humiliating that this has been 
done by a people comparatively without education, with no 
pretensions whatever to what is called agricultural science, and 
with few implements, and those far from being the most im- 
proved. To say, however, that they are without education and 
agricultural science, is a great misnomer. They have the surest 
of all science, that which grows out of long experience, and 
which comes from the application of the mind, sharpened by 
necessity, to whatever is passing within its own province, 
and avails itself of all the lessons which that experience 
suggests. I am far from thinking that with them the ulti- 
matum of improvement has been reached. I should regret 
to find any where, in any science or art, the door of inquiry 
closed ; but at present they may congratulate themselves 
with having reached a degree of improvement, which many 
other countries, with superior advantages in other respects, 



THE SOIL ; AND SIZE OF FARMS. 207 

have not as yet approached. Thougli their implements liave 
been imperfect, there is yet an obvious reason why they have 
been effectual. The great agricultural instrument in Flanders 
is a spade. We are contriving all kinds of implements which 
shall lessen human labour. We want all sorts of machines 
which shall, if possible, do the work of or by themselves. 
We want that they should be impelled by wind or by steam, 
or by brute force ; and we would be glad, as far as possible, 
to dispense with the necessity of personal superintendence. 
The Flemish farmers reluct at no personal superintendence 
or toil ; and even an inferior implement, with a thinking 
and directing mind at the end of it, may be more efficient 
than many a more complicated or better contrived machine, 
which is expected almost to make its own way. 



XXV. THE SOIL ; AND SIZE OF FARMS. 

The soils of Flanders are generally inferior ; but they 
illustrate the Latin proverb, that persevering labour over- 
comes all difficulties. In many instances, the farmers plant 
themselves upon an almost hopeless blowing sand, which 
would seem to defy all vegetation. They will begin by 
planting oats, or rye, and broom ; the oats or rye are used for 
forage, and so are the tops of the broom, which remains in 
the ground three years, and is then ploughed in to form 
and enrich the soil ; and when by degrees they can advance 
so far as to grow turnips or clover, so as to feed a cow, the 
way of success is open. In such case, all manure, solid and 
liquid of every kind, is saved with care, and the whole 
redoubles itself; and after a time is witnessed the conver- 
sion of this arid sand into a productive soil. 

The size of farms in Flanders is small, in many cases not 
exceeding fifty acres ; often less than this, and not more than 
six or seven acres. The amount produced, upon even the 



208 THE CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL. 

smallest holdings is remarkable, and presents an advan- 
tageous, and often an instructive contrast with the product 
of large farms. 



XXVI. THE CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL, TRENCH- 
ING, PLOUGHING, MANURING. 

] . The first characteristic of Flemish husbandry is their deep 
cultivation. In some cases this is done bj the spade, in others 
by the plough, and sometimes conjointly by the plough and 
spade. The land is gradually trenched to the depth of twenty 
inches or more. The land for grain being laid out in stitches, 
six or seven feet wide, in the intervals a deep trench or ditch 
is dug, say of a foot in width. The next year, in cultivating 
this same land, a foot in width will be taken from the side of 
this stitch and thrown into the ditch or open space, widening, 
of course, the next bed to the extent to which it is cut off 
from the other ; filling up the trench of the preceding year, 
and forming a new trench. This is repeated year after year, 
until, according to the width of the stitch or bed, the whole 
ground is gone over to the depth of a double spading. At 
the same time, as the successive crops have followed each 
other, the ground has been carefully improved by manure, 
until a fine rich and mellow bed of soil is formed. Tliis opera- 
tion resembles subsoiling, with this difference, that the work is 
more thoroughly and carefully done with a spade than it can 
ever be with a plough. A deep soil, where properly enriched, 
is obviously most favourable to vegetation. The air itself is 
a great enricher of the ground ; water, another great element 
of fertility, passes through a well cultivated soil, leaving its 
fertilizing influences, without becoming stagnant, and so 
injuring the soil. All plants do not equally require deepness 
of soil, yet even the plants which appear most superficial 
often extend the fine tendrils of their roots in search of food 



THE CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL. 209 

much farther than the eye can follow, or than is generally- 
supposed. A French farmer states that he has found the 
roots from a plant of wheat extending five feet. All tap- 
rooted plants, such as clover or carrots, frequent crops in 
Flanders, of course demand a deep culture. 

The first object then of the Flemish farmer, is to get a 
deep and friable soil, well enriched, and, as far as possible, 
equally enriched throughout. This is done with great pains- 
taking, and the whole resembles the most beautiful garden 
cultivation. Even where it is ploughed, the trenches at the 
sides of the field, and between the beds, are cleaned out by a 
spade ; what is taken out is laid carefully upon the beds ; 
and the whole executed with a neatness and exactness the 
most particular, and perfectly delightful to the eye. 

2. SuBSOiLiNG. — They have a peculiar mode of working 
their land in many cases, of which their best farmers think 
veiy highly, and which is well deserving of notice. Imme- 
diately after the plough has opened the furrow, workmen 
follow with a spade, and take out from the bottom of the 
furrow large spadefuls of earth, laying them up upon the 
turned land. Here they remain in lumps until they are 
reduced to fineness by the warmth and air, and spread them- 
selves upon the soil. They have an opinion that this is equal 
to a good manuring. The next furrow slice of course falls 
into these holes, and to some extent there is a complete in- 
version of the surface-soil. This does not answer, however, 
where the land is clayey, or strong and adhesive, as, in that 
case, water would collect and remain in the holes made under 
the furrow with the spade. The object of the Flemish fanner 
is to have the ground thoroughly enriched and friable ; and 
to give, as far as possible, a quick passage for the water which 
falls upon it, and free admission to the air. 

3. Draining. — Nothing can sui-pass the pains-taking of the 

p 



210 THE CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL. 

Flemish farmer in the preparation of his soil, as the basis of 
all his efforts, and that on which he rests his hopes of success. 
I have already said, that with a view to get rid of surface- 
water, he carefully lays his ground in stitches or beds, narrow 
or wide, in proportion to the quantity of water, which, from 
the situation of the land, may require to be disposed of If 
the land is made wet by springs, he takes pains to cut off 
the springs by transverse ditches. These he fills with brush, 
or wooden boughs, and upon these he lays stones, and then 
covers with earth, and thus conveys the water into an open 
side ditch. This is a primitive mode of draining, and not 
the best which could be chosen ; but after the wood has 
decayed, the channel being once formed, it is likely to be 
kept open for a length of time, by the force of the running- 
water. If the wetness of the land proceeds from its low and 
sunken position, or from springs which cannot be cut off, it 
becomes necessary then to cut it up by open ditches, which 
are made at distances varying according to the nature of the 
land to be drained, and into which the water becomes col- 
lected. This takes up a considerable portion of the surface, 
but the compensation is found by the dryness and available- 
ness of the other portions, by which method only these could 
be secured. This is the universal practice upon the polders, 
and these principal ditches are often of sufficient width to 
proceed upon in boats, in order to take off the produce to the 
outer edge of the polder, where it can be removed in carts. 

4. Mixing the Soil. — If the soil upon which he pro- 
poses to operate be composed, as often happens, of different 
strata of earth, as, for example, of mould, next of a layer of 
clay, and next of sand, he is careful, by a deep trenching, 
thoroughly to stir, and by degrees to intermix and enrich 
the whole. In truth, every effort is made to produce a deep, 
friable, rich bed for their operations ; and by such means 
soils, which appear at first almost worthless, are made pro- 



THE CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL. 211 

ductive. Many soils, which in their original condition were 
sterile and comparatively worthless, now take rank with the 
most fertile. 

I do not pretend in this case to enter into the question of 
expense and compensation. In order to determine the ex- 
pediency of such improvements, in any situation, the value 
of land and of the produce must be taken into the account, 
as well as the cost of labour and manure ; but my sole 
object is to state what has been done ; and to show from 
that what skill, industry, and perseverance may accom- 
plish. 

There are few situations in which substantial and judicious 
improvements upon land do not afford a full return ; and the 
more substantial and thorough, the more ample the compen- 
sation. In a country so thickly populated as Flanders, and 
with labour so abundant, it is important that every rod of 
land should be made productive. From what is effected 
under circumstances almost hopeless, and upon soils abso- 
lutely barren, it would encourage the expectation that much 
more than has already been accomplished may be done with 
even those soils which are now considered best cultivated ; 
and with respect to the greater portion of lands under culti- 
vation, even in districts which are considered most advanced, 
I believe their produce might, in many cases, be increased 
one-half 

What is done in Flanders by trenching, is now done in 
Great Britain by subsoiling. By this the lower strata are 
loosened, the sun and air admitted to exercise their fertilizing 
influences upon them, and they are thus gradually intermixed 
with the upper soil. There is this great improvement in the 
English method, that the land is first drained by underground 
drains, which remove the superabundant wetness, without 
occupying any of the surface. 

5. Rotation of Crops. — Another great feature of Flemish 

p2 



212 THE CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL. 

husbandry is tliat of a regular rotation of crops. This is 
exact, and observed with strictness. 

It has been maintained by some persons, that the excre- 
mentitious matter rejected by some plants poisons the soil 
for plants of the same kind to succeed them, until after an 
interval, when this exuded matter becomes consumed, dis- 
solved, or changed. By others it is supposed that each plant 
demands for its nutrition particular ingredients or elements 
in the soil ; which, being consumed, the same kind of plant 
will not flourish or succeed in the same soil until a further 
supply of the same material is furnished, which may be done 
artificially, or which will take place naturally, when the 
ground is suffered to repose a certain length of time, or other 
crops of a diflerent character, and not requiring the elements 
so consumed, are cultivated. The latter seems to be the esta- 
blished theory. But whatever be the true solution of the 
necessity of an alternation or change of crops, the Flemish 
husbandmen have long understood such necessity, and ex- 
perience has taught them what crops should succeed each 
other, and how frequently the same crop may be cultivated 
successfully on the same land. 

What this rotation shall be, must depend on a variety of 
circumstances. An intelligent farmer will be likely to in- 
quire first, to what crops is the soil best adapted, because of 
this he is likely to get the largest product ; what crop is 
most required for his own use or for the market ; what crop 
is likely least to exhaust the soil ; what crop is he best able 
to manure. In short, a great variety of inquiries growing 
out of the nature and jiarticular condition of the soil, which 
will determine the course of crops to be adopted by the 
farmer, having in view that which he can obtain with the 
largest profit, the least expense, and the smallest injury to 
the land. What are called green crops, with the exception of 
potatoes, which enter largely into human food, such as carrots 
and turnips, are grown mainly with a view to the manure. 



THE CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL. 213 

which they furnish by the animals fed upon them. The 
farm is divided into several portions, and on these different 
portions, distinct rotations are proceeding regularly, the aim 
of the farmer being to have a variety of crops growing at the 
same time. In this way he provides best for the supply of 
his family ; having a variety of articles to dispose of, he runs 
less risk in the fluctuations and caprices of the markets ; and 
he is enabled the better to husband and apply his manures. 

I shall here give some examples of these rotations of crops, 
not as furnishing a rule for other places, which may difier 
very much in various circumstances, but simply as illustra- 
ting the practice of these careful husbandmen. 

On a soil of a good quality, and on which wheat may be cul- 
tivated, the following rotation is sometimes observed : 

1. Potatoes. 

2. Wlieat, with turnips sowed upon the stubble after the 
harvest. 

3. Oats and clover. 

4. Clover. 

5. Rye, with turnips sowed upon the stubble after the 
harvest. 

6. In grass, to remain as long as it is profitable. 

The farm in a case like this, will be divided into as many 
portions as there are distinct crops, so that all will be grow- 
ing on the same farm at the same time. 

The following rotation is sometimes had : — 

1. Wheat. 5. Clover. 

2. Rye and turnips. 6, Rape. 

3. Oats. 7. Potatoes. 

4. Flax. 

On a very strong soil the following rotation is given : — 
1. Potatoes, 2. wheat. 3. beans, 4. rye, 5. wheat, 6. clover, 

7. turnips, 8. flax, 9. wheat, 10. oats, 11. fallow, 12. tobacco, 

13. rye, 14. o^ts. 



214 THE CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL. 

The following rotation is adopted upon a stiff soil : — 

1 . Potatoes, with twenty tons of dung per acre. 

2. Wheat, with three and a half tons and fifty barrels of 
urine. 

S. Flax, with twelve tons of dung, fifty barrels of urine, 
and five cwt. rape cake. 

4. Clover, with twenty barrels of wood ashes. 

5. Rye, with eight tons of dung, and fifty barrels of urine, 

6. Oats, with fifty barrels of urine. 

7. Buckwheat, without manure. 

On a rich loam the following rotation is pursued : — 

1. Turnips, carrots, chicory. 

2. Oats and clover seed. 

3. Clover. s 

4. Wheat. 1 Wheat occurs in this rotation four times 

5. Flax. I in eleven years. Clover, which occurs 

6. Wlieat. f twice, is to be considered as the only 

7. Beans. \ enriching crop. Manure is applied, how- 

8. Wheat. I ever, the first, third, fourth, seventh, and 

9. Potatoes. I ninth years. The cultivation is most care- 

1 0. Wheat. I ful, and no weeds are spared. 

11. Oats. / 

I have given these different rotations from Van Aelbroeck's 
account of Flemish husbandry, and from the same practical 
work I subjoin three tables illustrative of the same subject, 
and which will have an interest with the curious reader. 



THE CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL. 



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THE CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL. 



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THE CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL. 



217 



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218 THE CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL. 

It may not be easy to point out in every instance the 
principles on which these rotations are founded. With the 
Flemish farmers they are the result of long experience and 
. observation. Perhaps they might often be changed to ad- 
vantage. I have known, for example, in some parts of the 
United States, flax cultivated to great advantage every 
fourth year ; and in some parts of England wheat grown 
every second year. But in each case the land was highly 
manured, and in the former case the land was comparatively 
a new and unexhausted soil. My object in going into this 
subject was not to prescribe a particular course, but to illus- 
trate a great principle of Flemish husbandry, which will be 
found equally applicable to every situation. The necessity 
of a rotation of crops seems fully established. The kind of 
rotation to be followed must be determined by the peculiar 
circumstances of each locality, remembering only, that two 
crops of a similar character must not immediately succeed 
each other ; that the occasional intervention of a cleansing 
crop — that is, a crop which requires thorough weeding — is in- 
dispensable ; and that those crops which are to be consumed 
on the farm serve a double purpose, in addition to the animals 
which they sustain, they supply the manure which is de- 
manded. The necessity of naked fallows — that is, of leaving 
the land wholly unoccupied with any crop, that it might 
recruit itself, and the weeds be exterminated by repeated 
ploughings — is no longer acknowledged ; and cleansing crops, 
which are manured, may be substituted, greatly to the far- 
mer's advantage. 

6. Manuring. — The next great feature in the Flemish 
husbandry lies in their system of manuring. In the first 
place, they manure their land abundantly. In one of the 
rotations to which I have referred (p. 214), the first six crops 
were each of them liberally manured. The seventh, which 
completed the course, which was buckwheat, was without 



THE CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL. 219 

manure. In the next rotation (p. 214), where the rotation 
extended to eleven crops, five of them were manured. That 
the manuring was of a liberal character, is seen in the appli- 
cation of sometimes twenty tons of manure to the acre, and 
sometimes twelve tons, with the addition of fifty barrels of 
urine. Indeed, the first object of a Flemish farmer is to 
increase his stock of manure ; to this end he sufiers nothing 
which can be converted into manure to be lost or wasted ; 
and besides that which he makes from his savings and his 
domestic animals, he is always ready to purchase manure, 
where it can be found accessible, the various canals in the 
countiy furnishing great facilities for its conveyance. Perhaps 
there is only one point in which he is often deficient, and 
that is, in not raising sufficient green food for the support of 
cattle, with a view to increasing his manure. 

7. Liquid Manuee. — It is not merely in manuring liberally 
that Flemish husbandry is remarkable, but in the particular 
mode of applying this manure. The great object of the 
Flemish farmer is to apply it in a condition to be imme- 
diately taken up by the plants. Coarse and long manure he 
ploughs under in the autumn, that it may be in a condition 
to serve the crop which is to be sown in the spring. Or, if 
to be applied in the spring, he so works it over and prepares 
it, that it is in a condition at once to serve the plant. But 
the distinguishing circumstance in Flemish husbandry is in 
the application of liquid manure, both to the land before the 
sowing, and likewise to the growing crop. In such case the 
growing crop immediately receives it ; receives it at a time 
when, perhaps, the manure first applied has begun to lose 
somewhat of its efficacy ; and in a form that its efficacy is 
felt at once. 

The difficulty of applying this liquid manure to the crops 
on the land is often considered an objection to its use ; and 
there is,, with many persons, a fastidiousness in regard to the 



220 



THE CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL. 



use of it, which is quite absurd, and leads to the sacrifice of 
the most valuable and efficacious manure which is at the 
command of the husbandman. In some cases it is turned 
into the small ditches or furrows between the beds or 
stitches, and then with a spade thrown on to the beds with 
some of the soil by which it has been absorbed. In this case 
a light plough is sometimes passed through these intervals or 
small ditches, between the beds, so as to loosen the earth by 
which the liquid has been absorbed. But most commonly 

it is applied directly, by means 
of a cask constructed for that 
purpose, resembling the vehicles 
used for watering the streets of 
cities. 

In the subjoined diagram the 
liquid from the cask falls into a 
trough placed horizontally, and 
pierced with holes, by which 
means it is very equally distri- 
buted. 

In other cases, where the liquid is too thick to be distri- 
buted through these holes, it is, in passing out, made to 
strike against a plank or board, by which means it is scat- 
tered evenly upon the ground. Thus : — 





THE CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL. 



221 



In my opinion, if the liquid was made to fall upon a plank 
which should bo placed behind, at a slight inclination, it 
Avould be more effectually spread. Thus : — 




In case of small farms to which this manure is to be ap- 
plied, and where the cultivator has only his own labour of 
which to avail himself, he adopts 
a method of distributing- this ma- 
nure, of which the subjoined cut 
will give an idea ; but which, I can 
easily suppose, may not be agree- 
able to persons not accustomed to 
it. The Flemings, however, reluct 
at no labour by which their objects 
may be obtained. 

In some cases it is transported 
into the field by means of a wheel- 
barrow, with the cask containing : 
the liquid suspended between the 
shafts. There are acknowledged inconveniences attending 
its application ; but many of them are purely ideal, and the 
extraordinary value of the manure, when thus applied, is 
an ample compensation for any extraordinary labour or 
expense, which its saving or its distribution may cost. 




8. Cleanness of Cultivation. — Another feature in the 



222 MANURES. 

Flemish husbandry is tlie cleanness of their cultivation. 
They spare no pains in the eradication of every weed. 
They have, in this matter, much to contend with. An old 
country under a highly manured cultivation is liable always to 
be much infested with weeds, and especially with the squitch 
grass (triticum repens), which is their chief trouble. What 
cannot be accomplished by the plough, or the harrow, or the 
hoe, is done by hand ; and occasional recourse is had to a 
naked fallow. In such case a fallow crop, that is, a cleansing 
crop, — a crop, the cultivation of which would effectually destroy 
the weeds, would be more eligible. The old doctrine, that the 
land absolutely required rest, with a view to the recruiting of 
its powers, is now exploded. With ample manuring, and 
a rotation or change of crops, its occupation may be un- 
remitted. 

Such are some of the principal means by which the Flemish 
husbandry has been carried to a degree of perfection unsur- 
passed, it might be invidious to say unequalled ; and which 
exhibits the beautiful and substantial triumphs of art, labour, 
and indefatigable perseverance. To talk of such agriculture 
as not being scientific is absurd, for it is grounded upon the 
most exact observation of facts and experiments, continued 
and repeated through a long series of years. So far, then, it 
is scientific agriculture, as growing out of principles well 
ascertained and established. I am far from thinking that it 
is all that it can yet be rendered. It is not without its im- 
perfections, and I believe that even a higher productiveness 
may be reached. 

XXVII. MANURES.- 

I proceed to the subject of manures, as it presents itself in 
Continental husbandry. The Flemish call manure " the god 
of agriculture." Of its importance not a word need be said ; 
and the Flemish, in the pains thoy take in its accumulation 



MANURES. 223 

and use, evince the estimation in wliieli they liold it. Manure 
is indeed the foundation of all good husbandry. 

]. Mineral Manures. — Manures divide themselves popu- 
larly into three kinds, mineral, vegetable, and animal. Of 
mineral manures, such as lime, gypsum, and marl, the use 
seems well understood, but, within my observation, they are not 
applied to so great a proportional extent as in England and 
Scotland. Lime, or the carbonate of lime, is employed upon 
lands which are cla^^ey, cold, and heavy ; and in such case it 
answers a double purpose, to divide the soil and render it light 
and friable ; and secondly, to warm the soil. That plants take 
up some portion of lime from the soil is established ; but 
this is so small an element in their composition, that few soils 
are found deficient in the necessj^iry quantity. That it should 
be applied to the land in a caustic or warm state seems like- 
wise an established point. Some of the Flemish farmers 
advise to the mixture of lime with earth, and to its applica- 
tion in that form ; but this seems only an increase of labour 
without any obvious advantage. Others advise to the 
mixture of lime with heaps of vegetable matter, so as to 
reduce it ; but, in such case, it is likely to destroj^ some of 
the most valuable parts of the manure. The efficacy of a 
dressing of lime is considered by the Flemings to endure 
three years ; but this must obviously depend upon the 
quantity applied. Thirty bushels of unslacked lime after 
being slacked is considered by some farmers a proper appli- 
cation ; -while others advise the application of thirty bushels 
each year for three years in succession. 

I have met with the frequent application of marl to light 
lands, and to the surface of peat-lands, where it soon forms a 
productive soil. The application of g}^sum can scarcely 
be said to be general. It is sometimes applied in the ground 
to the seed of potatoes in the planting, in which case it is 
generally admitted to improve the quality of the potato ; 



224 MANURES. 

and it is applied also by being sown broad-cast upon young 
clover; in this latter case, ordinarily with success. The 
philosophy of its operation is still obscure. It is difficult to 
say why it fails ; but it is not less difficult to say why it 
succeeds. It will sometimes be useful, and at other times 
without effect, in the same locality. This I have myself 
experienced. A very competent farmer in the United States 
gives it as his opinion, and the result of his experience, 
that it sometimes failed of its effects from being too coarsely 
ground, but that it always succeeded when reduced to an 
impalpable powder. 

Much has been said of the value and efficacy of sea salt 
as a manure, and in France great complaints have been 
made of the heavy duty, which in fact prevented its use in 
this way. A distinguished French farmer and experimenter, 
who has devoted much time and expense to this subject, and 
has furnished most exact accounts of his experiments and 
observations, has come fully to the conclusion that it is of 
no use whatever as a manure, and equally useless in the 
fatting of animals. These conclusions are different from the 
popular notions, which seem always entitled to some respect ; 
but they are fully borne out by the experiments, repeated and 
varied, of this indefatigable inquirer. 

2. Vegetable Manures. — Of vegetable manures I have 
only to say, that buckwheat and clover are often turned in 
by the plough, and with acknowledged advantage. The 
Flemish make a point of collecting every species of vegetable 
refuse which they can find, all vegetable matter growing upon 
the sides of the roads and that which is found in the canals. 
They are careful likewise to plough in their stubbles, except- 
ing where there is another crop on the ground, such as clover 
or carrots, which are sometimes sown among the grain soon 
after the crop is harvested. 

Under this head may likewise be placed ashes, of which 



MANURES. ' 225 

the Flemish make great use. A large part of the fuel consumed 
in Holland is peat or turf, and the Dutch ashes are highly- 
valued as dressing for clover. These ashes are imported from 
Holland into Flanders in large quantities in boats, and 
always find purchasers. They are applied as a top dressing 
to dry meadows, as well as to clover and likewise to flax. 
It is not well determined on what their particular efficacy 
depends. I subjoin from Radcliffe's Flanders an analysis of 
them, made however many years ago, when chemistry was 
far from its present improved state. 

Siliceous earth 32 

Sulphate of lime (gypsum) . 12 
Sulphate and muriate of soda 6 
Carbonate of lime .... 40 

Oxide of iron 3 

Loss 7 

100 

The ashes of sea-coal or mineral coal are likewise used as 
a manure, but they are deemed very inferior to the Dutch 
ashes properly so called. Heath lands are sometimes lightly 
skimmed, and the heath burnt for the sake of the ashes ; but 
if it is intended to cultivate the land or to plant it for trees, 
it is deemed hurtful to remove the ashes of the surface. 
Wood ashes and the ashes from the soap boilers are likewise 
most carefully saved and applied. Wood ashes are not easily 
obtained, because of their extensive use in the arts. The 
ashes from the soap boilers are much esteemed by the Flemish 
for strong and moist lands, and have a value from their con- 
taining a considerable quantity of lime. The refuse from the 
bleacheries, which contains a large quantity of soap, is more 
valued for dry and light lands ; both of these manures are 
greatly esteemed for clover and for dry meadows. Their 
effects are understood to last for three years, and they are 
more efficacious the second than the first year. 

Q 



226 MANURES. 

The cakes from the colza or rape, which remain after the 
oil has been expressed, are very much used for manure ; in 
which case they are thrown into the urine cistern, and aj)- 
plied thus mixed. They are supposed very much to increase 
the efficacy of this liquid manure. Within a few years how- 
ever, as I learnt at Courtray, these cakes have been used with 
advantage for the feeding of cows and swine. 

In some parts of France and Belgium the stalks of the 
colza are ploughed in for manure, and sometimes burnt upon 
the ground, reliance being placed upon the efficacy of the 
ashes ; and in some of the wine countries, the cuttings of the 
vines are dug in for manure, it is said, with singular efficacy. 
It is thus that that which has been taken from the earth for 
the growth of a plant, is returned to it as a principal ele- 
ment in the growth of the same kind of plant which is to 
follow. 

Soot is likewise used as a top dressing with great advan- 
tage, and is considered twice as valuable as ashes. It is 
applied to the young clover and to garden vegetables ; and is 
estimated highly for its power in destroying insects. Under 
good management, every article capable of being converted 
into vegetable food, or of enriching the earth, should be saved 
as manure. 

I have already spoken of the use of the drainings of the fac- 
tory where potatoes were converted into starch : their effects 
upon grass-land were most remarkable. I have in another 
place spoken likewise of the use of the water in which flax 
has been rotted. I have seen the most beneficial results from 
it ; but I am not aware of its use in Flanders. 

This water is conveyed from the starch factory into a basin 
or excavation, where, after remaining a short time, it makes 
a considerable deposit. This deposit is taken out and spread 
upon the land, or thrown into and mixed in compost ; and the 
water is drained off, and conveyed upon the field by small 
ditches or rills. 



MANURES. 227 

o. Animal Manures. — The great reliance for maiuire, how- 
ever, every where is upon animal manure, the excrements of 
animals, and animal substances. One of the most obvious 
deficiencies in French husbandry is a deficiency in manure. 
They are not accustomed to folding sheep upon their lands, 
as is common in British husbandly. They grow very little of 
esculent vegetable food for their live stock, such as turnips 
and carrots ; and their cattle are kept in the winter often 
very hardly upon straw. In summer their cattle are much 
in the pastures, overlooked by a herdsman or a child, so that 
the manure is scattered. There is an exception to this in 
districts where beets are grown for sugar, and the refuse of 
Avhich is applied to the feeding of animals. It would be 
wrong for me to pass upon the French in this respect too 
sweeping a condemnation, for I have found on some French 
farms the best possible provision for collecting and saving the 
manure, both in a solid and a liquid state. 

I have already spoken of the pains taken in Paris for con- 
verting the night-soil into poudrette. In this way the liquid, 
and therefore the most valuable parts of the manure, are 
lost ; but then in London, and many other large cities, all 
this valuable material is lost, both solid and liquid, whereas 
in Paris a large amount is saved and brought into a portable 
condition, and conveyed in this form without difficulty long 
distances into the country. This is an immense gain to 
agriculture. There is likewise a manufacture of manure 
called animaliee noir, which consists in boiling down the 
flesh of animals, such as horses for example, or animals which 
have died of disease and are unfit for food ; and after it is 
boiled, baking it in an oven, when it is brought into a state 
easily to be reduced to powder. There is a manufacture 
of this same kind of manure in London ; but, strange to say, 
the product is exported to France. The refuse of the sugar 
refineries, that is, the animal charcoal, or ashes of burnt bones 
used in cleansing the sugar, is highly esteemed as a manure ; 

q2 



228 MANURES. 

but it is advised by the Flemish farmers to mix it with their 
liquid manures in the urine vault. This manure is much 
employed in France. Its chief value is on heath and moist 
lands. It does no good on rich, highly cultivated land. It is 
spread broadcast for grass, and its effects are surprising. It 
is applied to wheat land at the time of the sowing of the 
seed : it is deemed much preferable to apply it in the 
autumn rather than in the spring. It is applied in France 
at the rate of four hectolitres to an acre, which would be at 
the rate of more than eleven bushels. 

The Swiss, likewise, are remarkable for their care of their 
manures. The heap is usually placed in front of ihe house, a 
slight excavation being made for it so as to form a basin into 
which the liquids are drained. The long manure is laid at 
the sides, and doubled in with the greatest care, and no little 
skill, so as to form a neat and compact pile in a square or 
oblong form. This seemed to be almost a universal practice ; 
and the neatness and exactness with which it is laid up are 
quite remarkable. The manure from the stables and the re- 
fuse of the house is deposited daily upon it ; and the drain- 
ings which run down to one end of the basin in which the 
manure heap is placed, are often pumped or dipped up, and 
returned upon the pile. The odour of the heap directly by 
the door and under the windows of the house cannot be 
agreeable ; but the extreme neatness with which it is formed, 
and the cleanliness and care which mark ordinarily every 
thing about the premises, do much to redeem its offensiveness. 
In their economy of manures, in their modes of applying 
them, in their extraordinary liberality in the use of them, the 
palm must be conceded to the Flemisli over all other people. 
The best Flemish farmers advise against the general mixing 
of manures. Their doctrine is, that as different animals 
demand different species of food, as well on account of 
their habits or constitution as on account of their taste, 
so different plants and diiferpnf «!oils require specific and 



MANURES. 229 

peculiar manures. I shall not discuss the question how 
far manure is to be considered as the food of plants. It is 
enough for us to know that manures are indispensable to 
their growth, and that different manures are very different 
in their various properties and effects. The manure of the 
horse is a powerful and warm manure, and considered as best 
suited to lands which are cold and moist. It operates 
quickly ; it lightens the soil ; but its effects pass off sooner 
than those of many other manures. The manure of horned 
animals is deemed more substantial, slower in its operation, 
and more durable in its effects. The Flemish farmers say, 
that where a second crop is raised upon the ground, the 
effects of this manure are more apparent in the second than 
in the preceding crop. It is obvious, however, that the qua- 
lity of the manure must depend very much on the kind of 
food upon which the animals are fed. The simplest experi- 
ment made with the original and most common of all chemi- 
cal insti'uments, the human nose, will at once determine the 
superior efficacy of the manure of animals highly fed with 
esculent vegetables and grain or meal over that of animals 
fed upon straw only. The manure of swine is considered by 
the Flemish as of very little comparative value, and where 
used, in order to produce as much effect, they advise to em- 
ploy full double the quantity which they would use of cow 
manure. My own experience has led me to rely upon the 
dung of swine as among the strongest of manures ; and the 
low estimate which the Flemish farmers place upon it must 
come from the hogs among them being fed mainly upon 
grass ; and from what I have seen, both in Belgium and 
France, being very poorly kept at the best. The swill pail, 
which is found at the kitchen door in the United States full 
of butter-milk and whey intermixed with cooked vegetables, 
broken pieces of meat and bread, is, alas ! not to be found 
at many cottage or farm-house doors on the European Conti- 
nent. The whey and the butter-milk are wanted for the 



230 MANUEES. 

table ; and it would be a species of sacrilege to give meat, 
which a large portion of the labouring people seldom or never 
taste, or bread to the swine. The dung of swine is, however, 
in the best cases, to be considered as a cold manure, and not 
easily brought into a state of active fermentation. 

The dung of sheep is every where highly esteemed. It is 
active and powerful ; and upon light and moist lands they 
rate two loads of the dung of sheep as fully equal to three of 
the manure of other brute animals. It is much used with the 
oat crop ; but it is not advised for flax, as being apt to force 
it to a premature ripeness. Valuable, however, as is the 
manure of sheep, I have seen on the Continent no instance of 
the excellent practice of folding sheep, which prevails so 
generally in England and Scotland. In the bergerie, or 
sheep -house, where their sheep are brought at night, they are 
careful to spread an abundance of litter, which is generally 
removed twice a year, in the spring and autumn. They 
begin with a simple layer, which the feet of the sheep soon 
reduce to fineness, and so proceed layer by layer to a depth 
of three or four feet, which thus becomes throughout its 
whole thickness thoroughly impregnated with urine. 

In some cases where the farmer does not find it convenient 
to purchase or own a flock of sheep, he receives one to keep 
or board for another person. In this case he furnishes straw 
for their litter in the stables on his own account ; and he 
furnishes what hay, or grain, or pulse, they may consume at 
the expense of their owner, at the current prices, or such 
prices as may be agreed upon ; and he boards and lodges the 
shepherd with his two dogs, who has the care of the flock, at 
about fifty-four dollars, or eleven pounds sterling, a year. He 
does this for the sake of disposing of his produce and of the 
manure. In the Lothians, Scotland, I found several instances 
in which the crops of turnips, or ruta-baga, were disposed of 
in the field to persons bringing sheep from the interior, to be 
consumed where they grew. Where practicable, this arrange- 



MANURES. 231 

ment is excellent. The Flemish are of opinion that a 
hundred sheep, well fed, will give in a well-littered stable or 
bergerie from fifty to sixty loads of manure of more value 
than eighty or ninety loads of any other stable or barn 
manure. 

I have already spoken of the supply of manure obtained by 
the Flemish from the Humerous distilleries which existed in 
Belgium, by the immense number of animals which were fed 
and fatted on the refuse grains of those distilleries. But 
these supplies are almost entirely cut oif. 

Another species of manure, much valued on the Continent, 
and especially among those careful husbandmen, the Flemish, 
is that of pigeons and barn-door fowls. The superior eflficacy 
of these excrements over most other manures is acknow- 
ledged. The excrements of hirds are voided only in one 
fonn, and may therefore be supposed to possess the greater 
strength. This manure is saved in Flanders with the greatest 
care. Contracts are often made with persons who keep 
pigeons for their manure. A hundred francs, or twenty dol- 
lars, is sometimes paid for the manure of six hundred pigeons. 
The manure goes under the name of columbine. The saving 
of this species of manure requires particular care. It is ad- 
vised to spread the floors of pigeon -houses and poultry-houses 
with fine sand, that this manure may be thoroughly inter- 
mixed with it, and a fermentation be prevented. If no care 
is taken of it, it is wasted, or it becomes full of maggots and 
vermin, which infest the birds. Sometimes it is applied 
mixed with water, but oftener in the form of powder. The 
dung of pigeons is considered more powerful than that of 
barn-door fowls ; but the reason is not ascertained. The 
dung of geese is not so much valued as either, perhaps for the 
reason that they feed on grass. The birds, whose excrements 
form the guano, feed wholly upon fish. 

Guano has been used to some extent in France, but its use 
is much discouraged by the extraordinary adulterations which 



232 MANURES. 

have taken place in it. These adulterations, according to 
chemical analysis, have amounted to ninety per cent. Where 
it has been used, its fertilizing powers have been acknow- 
ledged ; but the French farmers whom I have met with have 
not considered it superior in efficacy to poudrette, or dried 
night-soil. On a visit to a French farmer, about twenty 
miles from Paris, the state of whose farm would have been 
creditable in any country, and was certainly inferior to that 
of few farms which I have visited ; he informed me that he 
had made trial of stable manure, of guano, and of poudrette ; 
and that he found the guano powerful, that the stable ma- 
nure produced the largest growth, and that the poudrette 
produced the best grain. It is obvious that we want many 
more details and circumstances to form any strong conclusion 
from this experiment. In all cases, however, among the 
French, which came under my notice, I found a strong ap- 
proval of guano, but the preference given to poudrette. More 
experience may result in a different verdict. 

4. Liquid Manures, and means of saving them. — The 
preparations for saving the liquid manure, which are uni- 
versal in Flanders, and which are occasionally met with both 
in France and Switzerland, deserve the most particular 
mention. There is good reason to believe, that, if it could 
be saved and applied with equal ease, the liquid manure of 
an animal is of more value than the solid excrements. The 
Flemish farmers suffer nothing of this sort to be lost ; and it 
is stated that in Ghent the servants receive a compensation 
for saving the waste waters of the house. 

On a Flemish farm there is always a urine cistern, usually 
adjoining the stable or cow-house. A gutter or trough 
behind the cattle or the horses conveys all the liquids into 
this cistern, which is placed outside, rather than immediately 
under the cattle, that it may be accessible both for the 
removal and the mixture of other matters. This cistern is 



MANURES. 



233 



sometimes twenty feet in length, twelve in breadth, and six 
in depth. It is built of bricks, and the bottom laid in 
cement, so as to be water-tight. It is sometimes divided 
into two great compartments, and sometimes into several, as 
in the subjoined diagram. 




These different compartments are designed to preserve the 
liquid of different ages separately. Each compartment is 
accurately gauged, and there is a fixed scale in each com- 
partment, or in the cistern, where it is not separated, by 
which, from the height of the liquid, the quantity is easily 
determined. This is necessary for two purposes ; first, in 
case of the sale of the manure, and second, in its application 
to the soil ; in both which instances it may be important to 
know the quantity. In addition to the saving of the urine, 
the stables are frequently washed with water, and this like- 
wise runs into the common receptacle. It is deemed best 
not to apply the urine until it has some age, and has passed 
through a degree of fermentation. 

In order to increase their stock of manure, the farmers 
purchase large quantities of manure, such as the emptyings 
of privies in the cities ; and these are carried in boats 
prepared for the purpose, on the different canals, to the farms 
which are accessible ; and many of these farms have places of 
deposit, or cisterns for the reception of this manure, directly 



234 MANURES. 

upon the borders of a canal, that there may be little trouble 
in discharging the load. This is a double good to the cities 
and the country : to the former, in getting rid of their im- 
purities, and preventing the diseases which they might 
engender ; to the latter, in enriching their lands. In many 
cases these places are used as deposits for the use of manure 
merchants or dealers, who collect large amounts, and dispose 
of it in such quantities as may be needed to the neighbour- 
ing farmers, who buy according to their means or necessities. 
It is sold by the barrel or tun, and is measured by the scale 
in the tank, or the vessel in which it is removed. Sometimes 
the cisterns are covered in with brick, arched, and emptied 
by means of a pump ; in other cases they are emptied by 
means of dippers and buckets ; and it is important that they 
should be accessible, so that the sediment may be removed 
as it may collect- Sometimes the cistern is a mere round 
well sunk in the ground, and emptied by a pump. But the 
form is of little importance, provided it be secure and conve- 
nient, compared with the matter of saving all this refuse, the 
importance of which I have already most urgently insisted 
upon. To the great credit as well as to the great gain of the 
Flemish farmers, nothing of this kind is ever wasted ; and 
the cleanliness of the Dutch towns and cities is certainly not 
surpassed, and scarcely equalled by any others. 

A good deal of stress is laid upon having the cistern 
outside of, and detached from the stable, that the fumes from 
it may not injure the air of the stable, to the prejudice of the 
health of the cattle, or those who tend them ; and likewise 
on having different compartments in the cistern, that the 
liquid may have obtained a certain age before it is applied. 
They are in the habit, likewise, of mixing rape cakes, or the 
cakes which remain after the oil has been expressed from the 
rape-seed, with the urine, which in this way forms a most effi- 
cacious manure. These cakes weigh generally about half a 
pound, and are sold by the hundred or thousand. The amount 



MANURES. 235 

of this manure applied to the land is often very large ; liberal 
and ample manuring being one of the great principles of 
Flemish farming. 

5. Compost Heaps. — The Flemish have, likewise, a mode of 
preparing a compost heap, which is greatly approved among 
them. They collect the scrapings of ditches, the vegetable 
matter which is floating in them, heath, bushes, stalks 
of vegetables, and any waste vegetable matter which they 
can gather ; with this they mix a certain quantity of earth 
or soil, and then add quick-lime in about the proportion to 
the heap of one-tenth or one-fifteenth. This heap is several 
times shovelled and cut up with a spade, until it is in a state 
of sufiicient fineness to be applied to the field. In the Pays de 
Waes, a district of country between Ghent and Antwerp, the 
cultivation of which is not surpassed in any part of the 
country, perhaps not in the world, — for I can hardly think of 
any culture more exact, more clean, or more beautiful, or any 
crops more luxuriant than I saw here, — the practice of the 
farmers is to place this heap near the side of the field in- 
tended to be cultivated, and then to pour ujDon it a copious 
sprinkling from the cisterns ; the heap is then shovelled over, 
and the whole thoroughly intermixed ; in which case it 
becomes an excellent manure to be applied before sowing. 

6. Jauffret's Manure. — The preparation of Jaufiret, which 
has had much celebrity in France, deserves notice here. I 
have seen one similar applied, and with success, as far as the 
object aimed at was concerned, in the United States. The 
object of this invention was to find some means by which 
straw, brush, ferns, heaths, broom, and other woody sub- 
stances, might be speedily brought into a state of decom- 
position, so that the mixture might be applied- to the land. 
He supposes it possible to supply nutriment to the land in 
this way, without the aid of animals. He advises, therefore, 



236 MANURES. 

to collect a heap of materials composed of vegetable matter, 
such as straw, ferns, heath, broom, turf, bushes, small 
branches of trees, stalks, &c. ; and when this heap is made, 
the articles being intermixed and pressed together, you are 
then to prepare near it a liquid of the following materials : — 

100 parts of foecal matter and urine. 
25 „ soot from the chimney. 
200 „ gypsum in powder. 
30' „ unslacked lime. 
10 „ unleeched wood ashes. 
A small quantity of salt. 

„ refined saltpetre. 

25 parts of the drainage of a manure heap, or of 
liquid foecal matter. 

These matters are to be mixed in a place near the heap, 
with water enough to make a quantity of liquor sufficient to 
water this heap, and, in a few days, produce such a state of 
heat and fermentation as will reduce and wholly decompose 
it. The plaster or gypsum must be applied by slow degrees 
and in small quantities ; otherwise, it would become hard. 
Near the heap, which should be placed on a piece of ground 
slightly inclined, should be a basin or hole to receive the 
drainings of the heap, that they may be returned upon it. 
The washings or applications of the liquid must be repeated, 
and holes occasionally made in the heap to receive it. In a 
favourable temperature, it is stated that a fermentation will 
commence in forty-eight hours, and that in twelve or fifteen 
days the whole matter will be so reduced as to be in a condition 
to apply to the land to be ploughed in with advantage. 

I am not able to give with great accuracy the various 
proportions of ingredients which are prescribed ; but this 
general statement will be sufficient for practical purposes, 
understanding only that there must be a sufficient quantity 
of the liquid thoroughly to impregnate or saturate the heap. 



MANURES. 237 

Several other mixtures liave been prescribed by diiferent 
individuals, which produce the same effect ; the only ques- 
tion is that of cost. I do not deem it necessary further to 
refer to them, as they have been given in various forms to 
the public. Any cheap process, indeed, by which such crude 
materials can be decomposed must be valuable, especially 
when the articles themselves, of which the application is 
composed, are of an active and enriching nature. In general 
such prescriptions are looked upon as a species of quackery ; 
but Jauffret's method has been much approved in France. 

7. General Remarks on Manures. — I have heard from 
some farmers who claimed to be highly practical and in- 
telligent, great distrust expressed of the value of liquid 
manure. They have applied to their lands, with com- 
paratively small effect, the drainings of their dung-heap ; 
but, as a capital Swiss farmer observed to me, the drainage of 
a manure heap and the contents of a urine cistern are very- 
different matters. The former is, of course, in strength and 
efficacy very inferior to the latter. 

The Flemish farmers, in the application of their manures, 
aim at two objects : the one to have their manure in a form, in 
which it can be immediately taken up by the plant ; the other 
to apply it at a time when it is directly needed. In a liquid 
form it is, of course, most accessible to the demands of the 
plant, and they apply it at the time of sowing ; and to some 
crops repeatedly afterwards, when they are in a growing state, 
and the effects of the first application are exhausted. They 
are, likewise, most liberal and indefatigable in the application 
of their solid manures, not limiting them to the surface, but 
mixing them with the whole soil by thorough and deep 
trenching. Deep cultivation, liberal and thorough manuring, 
a careful and well-tried rotation of crops, and a thoroughly 
clean cultivation, may be said, indeed, to constitute the 
great principles of their agriculture, — an agriculture for which 



238 CROPS. 

it is not easy to find a parallel. Their carefulness in saving 
every thing- which is in itself or which can be converted into 
manure, and the extraordinary value which they place upon 
liquid manure, are most exemplary, and worthy of imitation. 



XXVIII. CROPS. 

I have already treated fully of many of the crops cultivated 
on the Continent, but there remain some few others in the 
culture of which the Flemish distinguish themselves, to 
which I shall refer. 

1. Colza is a plant cultivated largely in parts of France, 
but very extensively in Flanders, where it may be considered 
as a standard crop, the culture of which is carried to great 
perfection. It is a species of the cabbage family, and is 
cultivated for the oil which is expressed from the seed. It 
occupies the ground nearly a year, being sown in July or 
August, or transplanted in September or October, and 
gathered the ensuing July. The product of a good crop in 
seed is estimated at thirty bushels. It is considered a great 
exhauster of the soil, but it returns in its refuse much 
of what it receives. The stalks are often converted into 
manure, and are frequently used as fuel in cooking food for 
cattle, and in heating ovens. The land on which it flourishes 
best is a strong rich soil rather inclined to sand, yet argilla- 
ceous, moderately humid, and with a deep fertile bed. It 
must be well drained, so as to allow of no standing water 
upon it, and it must be well manured. The best preparation 
is a green sward, or a clover ley broken up ; it often, how- 
ever, follows rye or barley. It is important that the culti- 
vation should be thoroughly clean. When sown on stubble, 
the stubble is first to be thoroughly harrowed or ploughed to 
the depth of two or three inches, and then, the weeds being 



CROPS. . 239 

cleared from the land and the manure spread in:)on it, the 
whole is to be turned over by the plough to a good deptli. 

The seed may be sown broadcast, or it may be sown in 
drills : in the latter case it is more easily kept clean ; or the 
plants may be grown in a nursery, and transplanted. In case 
of transplanting, the crop is usually much better, and the oil 
made from it of a superior quality ; but the labour and ex- 
pense are considerably increased. When sown broadcast it 
is sown very thin, and cleared out so as to leave the plants 
about one foot apart. When sown in drills, the drills are 
more than a foot apart. When transplanted, the plants 
should first be grown in an ample seed bed, and set out at the 
distance of a foot from each other in double rows, the inter- 
vals between the double rows being eighteen inches. The 
land is ordinarily laid in stitches on which four or six rows 
may be planted ; the land in the intervals dug out with a 
spade, and laid on the bed in the autumn, and in the spring 
this dirt levelled, the soil gathered up round the plants, and 
the whole kept thoroughly clean. 

In December, when the ground is frozen, it is sometimes 
watered with liquid manure from the urine cistern in which 
the rape cakes have been dissolved ; and this manuring is 
sometimes repeated in the spring to the great advantage of 
the crop. This liquid manure is sometimes applied most 
beneficially immediately before sowing the crop. Wood ashes 
are likewise recommended as a manure ; and some farmers in 
Germany, when the plant presents four or six leaves, give it 
a dressing of plaster or gypsum. Marl on light soils is like- 
wise extremely beneficial ; this is carried on to the land in a 
season favourable to this work, and then spread and distri- 
buted by a harrow. 

The seed is often sown broadcast ; but it is very preju- 
dicial to the crop to sow it too thickly. There are three dif- 
ferent modes of transplanting the crop ; first, by a spade, 
when the workman makes the hole by plunging the spade 



240 CROPS. 

into the ground to its full depth, when, pressing it from him- 
self, children, who work with him, place two plants in the 
hole ; then with drawing the spade the earth falls back upon 
the plants, and a pressure of the foot between them finishes 
the operation. Or a dibble or planter may be used, which 
makes two holes, into which the plants are placed, and the 
earth closed up by hand ; or a furrow may be struck with a 
plough, and the plants laid along in the furrow on the side of 
the furrow slice, and a second passing of the plough will 
throw the dirt directly on the roots of these plants, there 
being a workman to follow the plough to relieve plants, which 
have been too much covered, or to cover those which have 
received too little dirt upon them, and to set up those which 
have fallen down. 

The plants, which are grown in a nursery bed, should have 
plenty of room ; and soot is recommended as an excellent 
manure for them, as well as for the field after they have been 
transplanted. The plants, which are designed to be set out, 
are sometimes kept out of ground five or six days. The 
design of this is to check vegetation, so that they may not 
advance too rapidly before the winter, lest the severe frosts 
should injure them. It is not considered indispensable to 
manure the field upon which the crop is to be planted, if it is 
in a good state, or if the previous crop has been manured, 
though the crop will bear the usual relation to the richness 
of the land. 

The crop follows rye or wheat with advantage, or clover ; 
but in the case of rye or wheat, the stubble is to be tho- 
roughly cleaned. The crop is to be hoed during its growth, 
and earth drawn round the plants. The plant has dangerous 
enemies in flies and bugs which attack it. Against the flies 
a dusting of quick-lime is sometimes of use ; but the bugs 
are with difficulty dislodged, unless by a frost. The frosts, 
however, when they occur nightly with warm days, are inju- 
rious to the plant ; much less, however, when the frosts are 



CROPS. 241 

followed by fogs. It is the habit of small farmers to pluck a 
portion of the leaves as food for their stock ; but this is at- 
tended by a diminution of the product. 

The harvesting of the crop is a business requiring much 
care. It must be gathered before it is completely ripe. In 
good weather it can be laid in small heaps and dried, and 
then shelled out on cloths upon the field ; or it may be 
stored in a barn after it has become sufficiently dry. In wet 
weather it may be heaped up with layers of straw between 
the layers of colza, until a return of good weather. If suf- 
fered to become too dry, it is liable to lose much by shelling 
out. In cutting with a sickle, the workman is cautioned 
against taking too many stalks in his hand at one time, as 
more likeh^ by so doing to shake out the seed. 

I have already spoken of the value of the cakes as manure, 
though they have been much used of late for feeding stock, 
which they informed me at Courtray was a modern practice. 
The clean cultivation of colza, and the ample manuring, serve 
eminently to prepare the land for wheat. 

2. Navette. — A smaller kind of colza, called navette, is 
cultivated where the land is too light for the larger kinds. 
It is cultivated for the same purpose, though the produce is 
seldom more than two-thirds that of the other. Its produce 
is considered more valuable, and sells for a higher price. It 
is sown broadcast ; and requires the land to be well culti- 
vated and manured. The navette, a rape of summer, is sown 
in the spring, and ripens its seed in September. This kind 
is much sown in parts of England, as feed for sheep ; but is 
seldom suiFered to go to seed. It produces a healthy feed for 
sheep, and in good land a most productive vegetation. It 
sometimes, as I have observed in another place, affects badly 
the ears of sheep. The navette, a rape that is sown in autumn, 
has the advantage of bearing the frost well ; and is much 
benefited by being harrowed in the spring. 

R 



242 CROPS. 

3. Poppy. — The poppy is largely cultivated in Flanders ; 
but I have no recollection of seeing it any where else, though 
it often appears as a weed in fields of grain, both wheat and 
oats. It is cultivated for its oil, which, when properly ma- 
naged, is much esteemed. It is grown in small quantities in 
gardens for medical purposes as a narcotic ; in which case 
the heads with a piece of the stalk are cut off before their 
maturity, and hung up to dry, and the opium extracted by 
the druggists. 

The poppy cultivated is of two kinds, the white and purple. 
The latter kind produces the larger quantity of oil ; the 
former the best quality. There is another difference ; the head 
of one kind being much more open than that of the other ; 
and the former kind is almost exclusively cultivated in Flan- 
ders. The soil required for the poppy should be strong and 
mellow, and, as far as may be, protected from cold. It should 
be well cleaned from weeds. Though ordinarily sown broad- 
cast, it would be preferable to sow the seed in drills, that it 
may be easily hoed. The plants should be left about a foot 
apart. It succeeds well to grain, and especially to hemp ; in 
which case the manuring is not required to be repeated. It 
is especially recommended to follow potatoes, where the 
ground has been well cultivated and kept clean. When it is 
intended that the poppy should succeed potatoes, the pota- 
toes should be well manured. When it follows any of the 
grains, several loads of manure should be given to the land 
for the crop. This manure may be applied in the autumn or 
spring ; but in either case it must be ploughed or harrowed, 
and thoroughly mixed with the soil. There is danger of sow- 
ing the seed too thickly, and therefore it is advised to mix 
the seed before sowing with one portion of earth and two 
portions of sawdust. As soon as the plants appear, they are 
to be weeded and cleaned with great care ; and when a foot 
in height, to be hoed and slightly earthed up. 

The gathering of the seed of the poppy is to be done by 



CROPS. 248 

hand, and at different times. As soon as the heads have 
acquired a degree of ripeness, they are to be carefully- 
shaken over a basket or bag", so as to save the first loose 
seeds. This is afterwards to be repeated before the general 
harvest, when the whole is to be gathered by cutting off the 
heads. The shelling of the seed is afterwards done by hand ; 
for if done by a flail, the seed is cleaned with difiiculty ; and 
the pieces of the stalk, which then become intermixed with 
the seed,' give an offensive taste to the oil. The seed may be 
preserved a long time, but requires to be aired. The oil of 
the poppy is used both for food and light, and is considered a 
fifth more valuable than that of the colza. The cakes, re- 
maining after the expression of the oil, are valuable for the 
fatting of swine ; and the stalks for fuel. The ashes, which 
remain after burning it, are of the best kind for manure. 
If the seed be pressed in a mill used for the colza or other 
oil, the greatest attention must be paid to cleaning it. The 
oil expressed in cold weather is much superior in quality to 
that obtained in warm weather, and the two must not be 
mixed. The great enemies of the poppy are the field-mice, 
which eat off the stalks while in a green state, and then de- 
stroy the heads. The birds likewise plunder a great deal of 
the seed. 

4. Cambline. — Another plant, called Cameline \ is culti- 
vated, when, for example, the colza fails, as it ripens its seed 
in three months. The oil is not so valuable as the colza, as 
it has a bad smell. The plant is not extensively cultivated ; 
but it succeeds well in sandy and inferior land. The stalks 
of the plant are used for brooms, and some persons cultivate 
it for this object. 

5. White Mustard. — The white mustard is sometimes eul- 



' Myagnim Sativum. 
R 2 



244 CROPS. 

tivated both for the medicinal qualities of its seed and the oil 
expressed from it, which, though useful for many purposes, is 
not suitable for human food. The great objection to the cul- 
tivation of this class of plants is, that it fills the ground with 
seed which germinates in succeeding years, and is with diffi- 
culty eradicated. It is sometimes subject to mildew or rust. 
It ripens in about fifteen or sixteen weeks. It is liable to be 
lodged ; but this does not ordinarily injure the seed. The 
plant is eaten as a salad ; and it is given to cattle as a change 
of food, when their appetites become capricious, and require 
to be quickened. 

6. Flax. — Flax is a great crop in many of the northern 
countries of Europe. It has been largely cultivated in Flan- 
ders, both for its fibre and oil. It has been for a long period 
an important article of commerce, and probably in no country 
has its culture been carried to such perfection. The value of 
the crop, and the extraordinary difference in the value of dif- 
ferent qualities, amounting in some cases to full one hundred 
per cent., show the attention it demands, and how liberally it 
recompenses extraordinary care. 

Flax will grow on various soils, but is not indifferent to 
the character of the soil on which it is cultivated. It re- 
quires a rich sandy loam, and one thoroughly manured. 
It is advisable, however, with the exceptions to which I shall 
refer, that the soil should be enriched by previous manuring, 
rather than in the year of its being sowed. The Flemish 
farmers make flax a crop in their regular rotation, occurring 
one in seven or eight years ; and the manuiing of their 
previous crops has reference to the flax crop, which is to 
succeed. 

There are generally stated to be two kinds of flax. The 
difference does not appear so great, however, but that they 
may occasionally run into each other. There is a kind which 
runs up on a single stalk, which is generally preferred, on 



CROPS. 245 

account of its producing a finer fibre ; there is another, of a 
coarser kind, which branches out at the top, like a tree. 
They make a distinction in Flanders, likewise, between the 
plants which bear a close, and those which produce an 
open or gaping capsule or seed-vessel, the latter being pre- 
ferred. Experiments have been made in Germany with 
seed brought from South Italy. The seeds were beautiful, 
and brilliant, and large, yet the plant attained a compara- 
tively small height. 

The Flemish farmers approve of changing their seed fre- 
quently. It is said that a crop from seed which has been 
twice sown in Belgium is inferior in quantity, owing to this 
circumstance. I am an unbeliever in the deterioration of 
any plant on account of continuing the seed, where proper 
pains are taken to get, by selection and care, the best seed 
only from that plant. The seed preferred in Flanders is the 
seed brought from Riga. There are other places, however, 
from which seed is brought, the fibre produced from which is 
said to be finer than that from Riga. 

The seed to be chosen should be heavy and brilliant, of a 
gold colour, or a clear brown, and especially clean. It may 
be tried in water ; and if much of it floats upon the surface, 
it is owing to the imperfection of the seed. It may be tried 
by throwing some little into the fire, to determine its oily 
properties ; and it may be laid upon a wet blanket or cloth, 
to determine its germinative powers. Seed which is black, 
or seed which has been much heated, is wholly unfit for 
sowing. 

The ground for flax cannot be prepared with too much 
care. A very fine crop of flax is often obtained on grass land, 
recently turned over, and this even without manure. The 
land in this case is carefully ploughed, rolled, lightly harrowed, 
and then sowed, and the seed lightly harrowed or brushed in. 
The crop which precedes flax is often oats or lye, but espe- 
cially potatoes. The land, if in stubble or in potatoes, is 



246 CROPS. 

carefully ploughed in the autumn, and then twice again in 
the spring ; and it requires to be most thoroughly cleaned, 
and kept clean of weeds. 

It is commonly sown thickly. Thick sowing tends to 
render the stalks fine and straight, without branching. One 
hundred and sixty pounds of seed is the usual allowance to 
an acre, which seems a large quantity. The land is some- 
times manured in the year in which it is sown. In this case 
it is ploughed early, say in March, and thoroughly wrought, 
and then rolled smooth and hard. The land is then manured 
with thirty bushels per acre of peat ashes from Holland, or 
what is called Dutch ashes, and with a good dressing of 
Kquid manure from the urine cistern, in which the cakes of 
colza have been dissolved ; and this is mixed, likewise, with 
some manure from the privies. This makes a strong dress- 
ing ; the land is then harrowed ; the seed sown, and lightly 
brushed in with a bush-harrow, as there is always danger of 
covering the seed too deeply. Horse manure must not be 
used for this crop. The effect of marl used as a manure for 
flax is to injure the colour. Pigeons' dung, or what is called 
columbine, and which includes also the manure of the poultry 
yard, is pronounced an excellent manure. It is plain that 
these manures do not favour the production of weeds, as is 
commonly the case with barn-yard manure, and consequently 
is much to be preferred. In the neighbourhood of Courtray, 
where much the best flax is grown, they use great quantities 
of the liquid manure, with the rape cakes freely intermixed. 
A thousand gallons of this liquid manure, with a thousand 
rape cakes dissolved in it, are sometimes applied to an acre. 
Besides other crops, flax is said to follow to great advan- 
tage a crop of hemp, which is always highly manured, and 
kept perfectly clean. The dung of sheep is much valued for 
the flax crop ; and especially where sheep have been folded 
on the land. The general opinion is, that high manuring 
produces a coarse flax ; light manuring produces a flax of a 



cROPH. 247 

fine fibre. It requires a deep culture, as the roots are sup- 
posed to penetrate to a depth equal to half the height, and 
the flax root has been traced much farther than this. 

The best flax is produced at Courtray ; and it is said that 
the same pains or manuring will not produce nearly as good 
in other places : this seems to imply some unascertained 
quality in the soil, peculiarly favourable to its growth. 

The time of sowing flax must be somewhat regulated by 
the climate or position of the place. It is sown in March, 
and sometimes as late as May. The earlier sowing is ad- 
vised, though in the countries of a high northern latitude the 
rapidity of vegetation compensates to a degree for the short- 
ness of the season. Ordinarily in fifteen days after the 
sowing of the seed the field will require to be weeded. This 
cannot be too thoroughly performed, and is done by women 
and children, on their knees, working against the wind, that 
it may raise the plants which have been pressed down. 

Flax is often liable to be lodged, especially if the growth 
be rapid. Great pains are sometimes taken to prevent this, 
by placing stakes in line in difi'erent parts of the field, and 
laying poles or bars along upon them, which serve to keep the 
plant from falling over. 

If flax of an extraordinary fineness is required, it is pulled 
before the perfect ripening of the seed ; the superior fineness 
of the fibre is considered as a compensation for the loss of 
the seed. But if otherwise, an early is preferred to a late 
gathering ; as the longer it is left to stand, the coarser and 
harder becomes the fibre. The seed is generally taken ofi" by 
an iron-teeth comb, made for the purpose, as soon as the flax 
is harvested ; or the whole is stowed away in a bam, to be 
taken off" at pleasure. When the flax is stowed away in a 
barn, and the seed not taken off" until the succeeding winter 
or spring, it acquires a ripeness which gives it a superior value. 
After the seed is taken off", the flax is set up in the field in a 
sort of windrow, the roots upon the ground, and the tops 



248 CROPS. 

inclined to eacli other, until it is sufficiently dried to be 
placed away in^ barn, or stacked with the roots out, or 
steeped, preparatory to being dressed for the market. The 
bright and beautiful silvery colour of the flax is of great 
importance, and so is the fineness of the fibre ; and all pains 
are directed to secure these objects. 

There are several modes of steeping, or what is termed 
rotting the flax, that is, destroying the bark of the plant so 
as to clean the fibre. It is sometimes dew-rotted, that is, 
left upon the grass, being occasionally turned ; it is some- 
times rotted in stagnant water ; it is sometimes rotted in 
running water. In Flanders there are persons who are em- 
ployed as regular steepers of flax ; and when the farmer sells 
his crop of flp^x before it is dressed to the merchant or manu- 
facturer, these persons dress and prepare it for the market. 
The inhabitants of Courtray steep their flax in the water of 
the river hys, drawing ofi" to the side in an artificial basin, of 
sufficient depth and width, water sufficient for their purpose. 
The flax is set upright, with the roots downwards, in a sort of 
hurdle or basket, and it is with great pains retained in its 
upright position, as being necessary to prevent its becoming 
discoloured. They are careful to keep the roots at least a 
foot from the ground, or bottom of the pool. In many cases, 
instead of water being drawn from the river into a pool or 
basin, the flax is placed upright in hurdles to prevent its 
floating away, directly in the running stream, with planks 
and weights in all cases to keep it under the water, as the 
tops are longer in becoming macerated than the bottoms ; 
and where they are not sufficiently rotted, a considerable loss 
is experienced. In this case, of course, fresh water is con- 
tinually supplied to the flax ; and the process is completed 
sooner or later, according to the temperature of the weather 
Great skill is required to determine the precise time when 
the process is finished, and the flax removed from the water, 
as a few hours are said in such case to make an important 



CKUPS. 249 

difference in the colour of tlie flax. This must be matter of 
experience rather than of written instruction. In other 
cases, a pool or cistern of water is formed in a field, in which 
the flax is immersed, fixed upright, and the bottoms of the 
plants not touching the bottom of the cistern ; and so 
arranged, that this water can be drawn off and replenished 
with clean water. It is said that in this way the cleaned 
flax has more weight than in any other, amounting it is said 
over some methods employed to ten per cent. This method 
was at one time considered a valuable discoveiy in Flan- 
ders. It is clearly important in all cases that the water 
should have no foreign substance in it, which would be likely 
to give a colouring to the flax. I have already mentioned 
the value of the water in which flax has been steeped as a 
manure to land, having seen the most beneficial effects from 
it. I am informed that a method has been adopted for get- 
ting the bark off the flax by steaming the plant, in which 
case the whole is accomplished in seventy hours, but I am 
not sufficiently informed to speak of it with confidence. 
The flax being thus rotted, the remaining operations through 
which it passes are well understood. The operations of 
heckling and swingling- flax, which were formerly performed 
wholly by hand, are now performed by machinery moved either 
by steam or water ; but it does not enter into my plan to 
describe these machines. 

The seed of flax is of great importance in Flanders for the 
manufacture of oil. About seven bushels of seed are rated as 
the ordinary yield from an acre of land. This seems a very 
small product. The seed, when first taken from the stalks, 
is carefully dried and kept in sacks, until it is beyond the 
danger of being heated. The cakes from the pressed flax 
seed are highly valued for the fatting of cattle ; and the seed 
itself being converted into jelly, is capable of being used in 
this way to great advantage. Indeed, as far as my own 



250 CROPS. 

experience goes, I know no single article superior to it for 
cattle or for slieep. 

In Flanders they sometimes sow clover or carrots among 
the flax, from which they get a crop after that is removed. 
This should not be done in any event until after the first 
weeding of the flax. The practice is generally approved. 
That it is to a degree prejudicial to the flax crop, there can 
be little doubt ; but whether the profits of the clover or the 
carrots would more than compensate the lessening of the 
crop of flax, is a matter upon which there exists a diversity 
of judgment, and, in difierent cases, undoubtedly a diversity 
of results. 

7. Hemp. — The cultivation of hemp prevails to a consider- 
able extent in Flanders, and is expensive in the preparation 
of the land, and the quantity of manure required. The 
value of the crop is considerable : the land being well culti- 
vated and highly manured, is in a condition for two or three 
successive crops of grain. 

The soil required for hemp is a strong, rich, moist loam, 
a deep alluvion ; and it needs to be deeply cultivated and 
liberally manured. It is not unusual to plough it eight to 
ten inches deep, or to trench it with a spade a foot deep or 
more ; and it should be finely divided and tilled. It is 
ploughed in the autumn, and then again twice in the spring ; 
but it must not be wrought when it is wet, which indeed may 
be laid down as a universal rule. A sandy clay loam may 
be considered as best adapted to this culture. It likes a 
warm exposure and low ground. It succeeds well after clover 
or potatoes ; and in some places it comes as often on the 
same ground as every second or third year. 

The manure which best suits hemp, is horse or sheep 
manure. If the manure is coarse and strawy, it is ploughed 
in, and often by the first ploughing in the autumn ; but if 



CROPS. . 251 

well rotted, it is applied in the spring, and near or at the 
time of sowing-. It requires a warm manure ; though the 
manure of cows, when about a third part is added of night- 
soil, or manure from the urine cistern, is an excellent appli- 
cation. The manure of pigeons and poultry, ashes, and the 
cleaning of streets, are much valued. To give a rapid growth 
to the plant, the manure must be in a condition, that is, well 
rotted or short, to be immediately taken up by the plant ; 
and with respect to hemp, there is little danger from the 
seeds of weeds in the manure, as the luxuriant growth of the 
hemp will overpower them. 

The seed is sown ordinarily about the middle, or within 
the last fortnight of May, and sometimes not until June. 
The seed requires to be Avatched against the birds ; for even 
after it has made its appearance above ground, they will pull 
up the plants and take the seed. The plants are to be 
thinned out to a distance of three or four inches ; but if the 
land be very rich, to a greater or double that distance. If it 
is desired to grow a fine hemp for twine, the sowing should 
be thick ; if for large ropes and cables, it may be sowed 
more sparingly. 

The gathering of the hemp is made ordinarily at two 
different times. There will be found in the field what are 
called the male and the female plants. Both in Belgium 
and in France, by a misnomer, the plant bearing the seed 
is called the male plant, and the plant bearing the flowers 
for the impregnation of the flowers upon the seed-bearing 
plant is called the male hemp. It is of no great importance 
by what term they are designated, provided the difference is 
understood. The plants which do not bear seed are to be 
pulled fi'om the field some weeks before the seed-bearing 
plants ; they at that time will give a fine fibre, but if left 
until the ripening of the seed, they become of little or no 
value. The time for pulling them is when the flowers of 
the non-seed-bearing plants have been long enough unfolded 



252 CROPS. 

to shed tlieir pollen upon the male plants, and the top of 
the stalk becomes of a yellow colour, and the part towards 
the root is bleached. The ripeness of the seed-bearing plants 
is determined by the maturity of the seed, and the fading 
colour of the stem. The hemp, being pulled, is tied in small 
bundles ; and, after being sufficiently dried by being set up 
in the sun, the seed is beaten or combed off, and the plant is 
prepared for steeping or rotting. The hemp pulled first re- 
quires not more than eight or ten days for rotting ; the last 
pulled, which is drawn of course when the weather has 
become colder, is sometimes kept in the water two months ; 
and it is well for it to remain until the water freezes. The 
mode of steeping does not differ much from that of flax, 
excepting that it is not deemed necessary to set it upright 
in the water, and that it is done in a pool or basin instead of 
the river. The colour of the fibre of hemp is obviously of 
little importance compared with that of flax, though some of 
the finest of hemp is sometimes mixed with flax for the 
making of coarse linens. 

Hemp, too, like flax, is sometimes dew-rotted upon the 
ground, where it is thinly spread out, and occasionally turned. 
That which is dew-rotted has a superior whiteness and fine- 
ness of fibre to that which is steeped, but is not so durable. 
This dew-rotted hemp is therefore preferred for twine, and 
the other kind for cables and strong cordage. The early 
pulled hemp should not be rotted upon the grass, but upon 
stubble ; and it is believed by some farmers, that where it 
is spread upon a rye-stubble to be dew-rotted, it acquires a 
whiteness above that by any other process. The seed-bearing 
hemp, when dew-rotted upon grass, must be spread so thinly 
that one stalk should scarcely touch another. 

The farmers of one of the best cultivated districts in Flan- 
ders, the Pays de Waes, are averse to planting hemp, because 
of the great quantity of manure which it requires ; but, with 
the addition of a moderate manuring, they get excellent 



CROPS. 253 

wlicat after it, and sometimes carrots al*e sowed after hemp, 
and a superb crop of flax is taken from the same ground 
after the carrots. Two great advantages are said to come 
from the cultivation of hemp ; the weeds are stifled, and 
the leaves, which fall from the stalks, serve to enrich the 
land. 

The quantity of seed sowed to an acre is about half a 
bushel ; and it is advisable to sow it in narrow beds, that 
when the non-seed-bearing stalks are pulled, the seed-bearing 
stalks may not be interfered with. Sometimes a crop of rye 
or wheat is sown among the hemp plants, while standing, and 
the extraction of the non-seed-bearing plant serves to cover 
it. This saves a ploughing. 

At the harvest, the plant is usually drawn by the roots, 
though sometimes cut with a sickle or a knife, and laid on 
the ground to be dried. The hemp is said to be of a superior 
quality if thoroughly dried before it is put in the steep. The 
ends of the seed-bearing hemp are sometimes beaten over the 
edges of the head of an open barrel, as the seed which comes 
off in this way most easily is, of course, the most ripe, and 
the best for sowing. The seed which first comes off in this 
case is taken for this purpose. 

The roots of the hemp before dew-rotting are cut off with 
a hatchet, and used for fuel. In pulling hemp, it is important 
so far to select the stalks as to bring together those which 
are of the same length to be tied up in the same bundle. 
The hemp, after being steeped, must be thoroughly dried ; and 
this is done in some parts of Germany by a kiln of simple 
construction for that purpose, Avhich saves much time. The 
hemp, after being dried, is broken by a machine formed by 
one heavy stone rolling over another, which breaks the bark ; 
and sometimes by mallets, and then the bark is picked off 
by the hand ; a slow process, and prejudicial to the health of 
the labourers from the dust which fills the room where this is 
done. 



254 CROPS. 

The produce of an fccre of hemp is ordinarily about 350lbs., 
and of the seed from thirty to tliirty-five bushels. 

There are several other crops cultivated extensively in 
Flanders ; but my object is not so much to give a specific 
and detailed account of the mode of cultivation of these 
crops as the general features of the cultivation. Tobacco 
and hops are grown to a considerable extent ; and likewise 
several plants valuable for their colouring or dyeing proper- 
ties, such as Woad or Pastel, Weld, and Madder. 

8. Tobacco. — Tobacco is cultivated as an article of large 
consumption and of commerce. It is quite remarkable that 
a plant so odious and offensive as this, in no respect conducive 
to health, and in most cases positively injurious, and so 
nauseous and repugnant to an unaccustomed taste until 
habit has overcome this repugnance, should have acquired 
such a hold, that it has become with a large portion of man- 
kind almost a necessary of life. There is no hope of a re- 
formation in this respect, and the use is constantly extending 
itself 

There are two kinds of tobacco cultivated in Flanders ; 
that of Virginia and that of Turkey ; the former is esteemed 
greatly superior to the latter. 

It has its place in the rotation of many farmers, occurring 
sometimes once in four, and sometimes twice in seven years. 
It Avill grow well upon most soils, excepting a heavy clay or 
a dry sand, or a wet soil ; but it requires laborious cultiva- 
tion and abundant manuring. The crop is stated to be 
4000 lbs. ; but this much exceeds the amount grown to an 
acre under the best cultivation which I have known in the 
United States ; 2000 lbs. would, I think, be considered there 
a large crop, though I have known an average crop of 
2700 lbs. grown on several acres under circumstances pecu- 
liarly favourable. 

The soil is ploughed, and the manure ploughed in, in tlio 



CROPS. 255 

autumn, and again ploughed and laboured in the spring. The 
manures used are cow and pigs' manure, and likoAvise the 
manure of sheep, which is deemed peculiarly favourable. 
Malt-dust from the breweries is much valued ; and veiy large 
dressings of rape cake, sometimes in powder and sometimes 
dissolved in the urine cistern, are extensively used. If foecal 
matter is mixed with this, it is essentially improved for this 
object. The manure of horses, even the urine of horses, is 
objectionable, as giving a bad taste to the tobacco. What 
worse taste can be given to it than its ordinary taste, it 
would be difficult to imagine. 

The seed is first sown in a nursery-bed, in a warm and 
sheltered exposure, in March ; the nursery -bed should be 
well-wrought and manured ; and, in case of danger of frost, 
the young plants require some protection either of bushes or 
of straw. The transplanting is usually made with a dibble in 
June, when the young plants have acquired a growth of six 
leaves. They are set out in rows two feet apart, and in the 
row the plants are fourteen inches apart. In about fourteen 
days the plants require to be hoed, and the plantation to be 
kept clean of weeds. Wlien the plants have acquired a height 
of ten or twelve leaves, they are then, as it is sometimes 
termed, stopped, — that is, the top-shoot is pinched off, so as 
to prevent its rising any higher ; and all side shoots are 
broken off, so as to leave only one stalk. In this way the sap 
of the plant is thrown wholly into the leaves. The tobacco- 
plant is subject to be injured by frosts, especially in low 
grounds ; and is likewise liable to rust, under which the 
leaves perish and fall to the ground. This depending, as is 
supposed, upon a bad exposure or a bad condition of the soil, 
as yet unascertained, no remedy has been discovered. I 
have not been able to learn that the tobacco-worm, so well 
known in the United States, and so destructive unless means 
are taken to remove it, is known in Europe. This is a large 
green caterpillar, found under the leaves ; and sometimes a 



256 CROPS. 

large drove of turkeys is sent into tlie plantation, who pick 
til em off and regale themselves upon them. This is the 
nearest approach within my knowledge to the use of this 
weed among the inferior animals ; the worms oat the tobacco ; 
the turkies eat the worms. 

When the leaves begin to turn yellow, the harvest begins ; 
they are picked off by hand close to the stalk, and, after a 
little exposure to the sun, are then tied up in bands and 
hung up under cover for perfect drying. When taken off 
they are sorted into three qualities : the first into the large 
leaves ; the second composed of the leaves next in size ; and 
the last of the leaves which have grown nearest the ground. 

9. Hops. — I know of nothing peculiar in the culture and 
management of hops in Flanders, excepting the production 
of sixteen hundred pounds of dried hops to an acre, which is 
a very large yield. They are careful not to have the planta- 
tions of too large an extent, as it would prevent a free circu- 
lation of air ; and they manure the ground most liberally 
with liquid manures. The hops are planted in hills six feet 
apart each way ; and four plants to each hill. A trench is 
dug round the hill, which is filled with decomposed manure, 
and in some small measure earthed up. The usual opera- 
tions of trimming and poling them follow. As no crop of 
hops is taken the first year, the intervals are occupied by 
cabbages and other plants. 

A method has been recently invented and patented in 
England for drying or curing hops, by which it is stated that 
at least fifty per cent, of the fuel ordinarily used will be saved, 
and a much larger amount of the essential oil of the hops, 
the lupulin, will be retained in them. The furnace or kiln 
for drying them is of a peculiar construction ; and the air 
used for drying them is made to pass over sulphuric acid or 
quick -lime, by which it is divested of its watery properties, 
and comes in upon the hops in a dry and decomposed state. 



CROPS. 257 

The apparatus is deemed simple enough, and not extraordi- 
narily expensive. The hops dried in this way have, it is 
stated, brought twenty-five per cent, more in the market 
than those cured by other methods. I have seen the plans 
for constructing the apparatus, but further experiments may 
be desired to determine its advantages. It is said to be 
applicable to other agricultural purposes, such as malting, 
and even the drying of hay, so as to expedite the process, and 
at the same time retain the rich juices of the herbage. It is 
difficult to conceive that it should be useful in this way upon 
any large scale. Most patent inventions, however, like patent 
medicines, are catholicons. 

There are cultivated in Flanders, in France, and in Italy, 
several plants for the purpose of dyeing or colouring, such as 
woad, which is used for a blue dye, weld for yellow, and 
madder for red. I was once asked, what bearing had the 
colour of the trousers of a soldier of the French army, which 
are red, upon agriculture. The answer is obvious, so in- 
finitely diversified and innumerable are the circumstances 
which affect the various relations and interests of social life. 

10. Madder'. — Madder is one of the most important of all 
the plants used in dyeing, and is cultivated at great ex- 
pense. It is two years, and sometimes three, before the crop 
is gathered. There are two kinds cultivated ; the one with 
a quadrangular, the other with an hexagonal stem. The 
former is the most productive ; the latter produces madder 
of the best quality. 

The soil required for its production should be deep and 
rich ; a clayey soil will produce good madder, but its work- 
ing is difficult ; a soil, therefore, in which sand enough 
prevails with the clay to render it friable, is that which is to 
be chosen. It must be deeply cultivated, as the roots, which 
constitute the value of the crop, run down very far. A 

' Rubia Tinctorum Sativa. 



258 CROPS. 

plough will scarcely go deep enough, and the land should be 
trenched with a spade to the depth of at least three feet. 
Manure should be ploughed in and dug in until the whole 
bed becomes most thoroughly enriched. It is advised to 
plough in the solid manure in the autumn, and in the spring 
to apply liquid manure, urine and foecal matter intermixed. 
Cow manure and stable manui-e are also applied with advan- 
tage ; and the land should especially be rich from former 
cultivation, and from having been thoroughly cleaned of 
weeds. The manure should not only pei^vade the surface, 
but be buried deeply, that the roots may not want for nourish- 
ment as they go down. 

Madder should be sowed in a nursery-bed in a garden, and 
the seed of the last year should be used, as seed of more 
than a year old germinates at a very late period after plant- 
ing. It is well to lay the ground in beds three feet wide, 
to receive two rows of plants ; or in five feet beds, to re- 
ceive four rows of plants. The plants are to be set in line, a 
foot apart, and the rows at an equal distance. The intervals 
between the beds are to be shovelled out, and the ground 
kept loose by a spade until the second year, when the roots 
of the plants extend into the intervals, in which case they 
must not be disturbed ; they must then be kej)t clean, but not 
dug. Holes may be made for setting the plants, either with 
a hoe or a spade ; they must be taken from the nursery-bed, 
and immediately set out, and not allowed to get dry or 
withered in the air ; they may be dipped in water when 
transplanted, and great care must be taken to prevent their 
being injured, and to place them fairly in the ground, bring- 
ing the earth and pressing it carefully down around them. 
Liquid manure may be applied with great advantage in the 
intervals between the beds. After the planting, it is well to 
water the plants ; and they are to be kept clean, and the 
intervals kept loose by a narrow hoe or spade : the sprouts 
thrown out at the sides of the main stem may be bent down 



oRops. 2r).9 

and covered with earth, so as to force tlie growth of tlie root 
In the autumn the plants should have a slight covering- of 
strawy manure. 

The madder which is not taken up until the third year 
produces much more, and of a better quality, than that 
which is gathered the second year ; but the increased ex- 
pense and rent of the land are seldom compensated b}' the 
increased product. 

The harvesting is a work of much labour. The roots, 
which in a well-prepared soil extend to a great depth, must 
be taken up with much care, and without injury. Sometimes 
a plough is passed along the line, and then the work is 
finished by the spade, but generally it is wholly done by the 
spade ; the intervals between the beds being dug out to the 
depth of two feet, and the plants carefully displaced and 
taken out by means of forks or narrow hoes. The plants lie 
upon the ground three or four days, in small heaps, in order 
to become dry, and in case of rain are covered with straw. 
They are then carefully housed, and afterwards dried in a 
kiln for the market. The excellent condition in which, 
under such cultivation, the land is left for other crops, is a 
considerable indemnity for the expense and trouble bestowed 
upon the crop of madder. The rich polders, or redeemed 
meadows, both in Holland and Flanders, are favourite spots 
for the cultivation of this crop. 

11. Woad'. — This plant grows wild in various places, but 
is cultivated for its blue dye. Where indigo is not attainable, 
it takes its place ; and where indigo is attainable, it is found 
advantageous to mix a portion of woad with indigo. The 
use of indigo, however, much interferes with the cultivation 
of woad. It is sown both in the autumn and spring. That 
which is sown in the autumn has the advantage of giving a 



' Isatin Tinctoria. 

s 2 ■ 



260 CROPS. 

larger crop of leaves, and of sooner getting out of the way of 
insects. The leaves constitute the value of the crop, and 
these are gathered sometimes thrice in a season, the first 
gathering being much the best. It requires a rich soil ; and 
the particular kind of soil is not so important as that it 
should be deep, to admit of the free descent of the tap-root 
of the plant. Rich alluvions, which have been well drained, 
are particularly favourable to it. The land should be ma- 
nured as well as for wheat ; and, above all, it should be kept 
thoroughly clean. It succeeds well after grain or after 
potatoes. It may be sown in drills, or it may be grown in a 
nursery, and transplanted. The plants require to be from a 
foot to a foot and a half apart. The leaves are gathered 
when they begin to droop, and turn slightly yellow ; they 
must be kept free from dirt, and when laid away must be 
guarded against heat or fermentation. They are sometimes 
washed, to get rid of any dirt which may adhere to them ; 
and a dry time must be taken for gathering. 

After being gathered, they are crushed in a mill, re- 
sembling a tanner's bark-mill ; they are then made into 
heaps, where they undergo a fermentation, great pains being 
taken to close any cracks which may appear in the crust of 
the heap : after this they are rolled into balls, twice as large 
as a man's fist, and are then pressed into the form of bricks ; 
and thus are ready for the market. The profits of such 
cultivation must depend upon the state of trade, and the 
price of indigo. I found this plant cultivated extensively in 
one part of Lincolnshire, where a large mill had been recently 
erected for its preparation. The best woad is grown in the 
south of France, where it is largely cultivated. 

12. Weld. — The weld is cultivated for its yellow colour. 
It is a plant which grows wild in many places, and the 
smaller kind is known in the gardens as mignonette. It 

' Reseda Inteola 



CROPS. 261 

requires a soil dry, calcareous, and well cultivated. It will 
grow well upon a sandy clay loam. Upon a very rich soil 
the stems will be proportionally strong and large, but the 
colouring matter not so good ; upon a poor soil it will not 
pay the expenses of cultivation ; a soil of medium fertility is 
to be preferred. It should be sown very, early in the spring, 
and the ground should be well cultivated in the previous 
autumn. It does not require manure when sown upon a soil 
previously well cultivated and clean. The seed must be 
covered as lightly as possible, and it is best sowed in line. It 
will require to be carefully weeded ; and when the leaves 
begin to turn yellow, it should be gathered. In a sandy soil 
it may be pulled with the roots ; in a clay soil, where the dirt 
would adhere to the roots, it should be reaped close to the 
ground with a sickle. The plants which are designed for 
seed should be allowed to remain until the seed is perfectly 
matured. Fresh seed is greatly preferred to seed more than 
one year old, which often fails to come up ; and when sown, 
on account of the smallness of the seed, it is recommended 
to mix it with some fine sand. The plants when gathered 
are to be dried in the sun, and then tied up in small bundles, 
so overlaying them, that the tops of the plants shall be turned 
in upon each other, and the roots project at each end of the 
sheaf. They must then be put away in an airy and dry 
place, and are ready for sale. It may be cultivated on the 
same land once in eight years. 

13. Carrots. — I must not quit the crops common in Flan- 
ders, without referring to the culture of the white carrot, 
which is vastly more productive than other sorts. This is 
sometimes sowed among rye or wheat, or colza or flax, after 
the last cleaning, and a small crop is obtained in this way, 
but often at the expense of the crop among which it is sown. 
When sowed as a separate crop, they speak of twenty tons 
to an acre, or eight hundred bushels. They require a com- 



262 IMPLEMENTS OF HUSBANDRY. 

paratively liglit and dry soil ; they bear high manuring and 
deep cultivation ; and are considered a profitable crop. 

I shall take the liberty of repeating here what I have said 
in another place. The land, after being fully prepared by 
manuring and fine tilth, should remain until the first crop of 
weeds comes up, and should be lightly ploughed, in order to 
destroy these. Furrows should then be made upon the field, 
into which the manure should be placed, and then a back fur- 
row slice turned each way upon this open furrow, so as to form 
a ridge directly over the manure. These ridges should be 
twenty or twenty-seven inches apart. On the top of these 
ridges, which should be smoothed off carefully, the carrot 
seed should be sowed in double rows ten inches apart, and as 
straightly as possible. The carrot seed should be sprouted in 
wet sand, before sowing, and should early be weeded. The 
land may then be ploughed between the rows, and kept clean 
with a hoe. They must be thinned out in the row to about 
six inches asunder. When ready to be taken up, by run- 
ning a plough directly by the side of the row of carrots, they 
are gathered with little trouble. " 

I have now gone through the principal crops grown in 
continental husbandry, and though not undertaking to give 
a full detail of the culture, yet I have given all the j)eculia- 
rities which distinguish any mode of culture, and those gene- 
ral rules and principles which are universally applicable. 



XXIX. IMPLEMENTS OF HUSBANDRY. 

In Paris at the Conservatory of Arts and Trades, at Brussels, 
at Utrecht, I found extensive collections of agricultural im- 
plements and models of agricultural tools and machinery. 
These embraced many of the most improved implements to be 
found in England or the United States. It may excite a 
smile of surprise with an Englishman, that I speak of the 



IMPLEMENTS Of HUSliANDUy. ■J.iio 

United States in this connexion. But I have seen nothing 
on the Continent or in Great Britain equal to the collections of 
agricultural implements which are to be found, for example, in 
Boston, United States. The English implements arc usually 
clumsy, heavy, and inordinately expensive. In treating of 
British Husbandry, I have given an account of some of the 
best of them. They at least answer the purposes of the 
ingenious mechanics, who understand very well when they 
have got their pail under a cow with a full udder, and how 
in the most agreeable manner to abstract the gold from the 
pockets of enthusiastic agricultural amateurs. Like the Flem- 
ish cows, they are carefully fed, not to say flattered, while 
being milked ; and finding tools and implements for every 
operation, and adapted to all possible shades of difference in 
the manner of performing it, imagine they have only to pur- 
chase the tool to have the operation accomplished. In gene- 
ral they are compelled to learn that it is not so much the 
tool, as the man who holds it, upon which they are to rely 
for the proper execution of the work. Of this the Flemings 
are a striking example ; for it is impossible to find agricultural 
operations better executed, and with fewer and more simple 
implements, 

I found, as far as simple inspection could determine it, in 
my humble judgment, the best plough I have ever seen in the 
Museum at Brussels ; but I regret that I could get no infor- 
mation as to its name or maker. It was a light j)lough, 
designed for common field work with two horses. It is 
difficult to describe it. The share was long and thin, 
broad enough to cut completely the bottom of the furrow 
slice ; and the mould-board was almost the segment of a 
circle, or rather shaped like the back of the hand with the 
fingers closed tightly, raising the furrow slice at the most 
natural and easiest angle, and all friction or pressure ceasing 
after it once became sufficiently inverted to fall by its own 
Aveight. I was not able to obtain either a model or a drawing. 

Two ploughs are much celebrated in Flanders, one called 



264 



IMPLEMENTS OF HUSBANDRY. 



the Walloon plough with wheels to the beam, of which I 
subjoin a sketch, and which is much used for ploughing deep 
in heavy lands. It is used with two, three, or four horses, 
according to the nature of the soil, or the depth to which it 
is desired to go. 




The other is of a lighter description, and is much esteemed 
as the Dutch plough. It is introduced into France, and there 
most highly approved. For light lands it is used with one 
horse, but ordinarily with two. What I have sometimes 
seen called the Dutch plough has had the mould-board so 
curved, or rather almost concave, as to offer great resistance ; 
and rather to press the dirt as if with the hollow of the hand, 
than to turn it over. The common Flemish plough is un- 
doubtedly an excellent implement. It has a shoe or 
regulator attached to the beam in front, by which the depth 
of the furrow is regulated. A plate of it is subjoined. The 
Flemings value it not only for raising and inverting the land, 
but for pulverizing it at the same time. 




IMPLEMENTS OF HUSBANDRY. 265 

In the harrows and rollers used in Flanders I saw nothing 
peculiar. They have bush harrows, and harrows with "teeth 
of iron and of wood. 

The instrument, which is deemed peculiarly Flemish, is 
the mouldebart, of which I annex a plate. It is designed for 
the speedy removal of earth, when it is not required to trans- 
port it to a great distance. The horses or oxen are attached 
to this implement which immediately dips itself full of dirt, 
and when full, the handles are then pressed down that it 
may slide easily over the ground. When it reaches the place 
of deposit, the handles are raised, and it empties itself; and 
the string, which is constantly held by the workman who 
guides it, is designed to pull it back after it is emptied. It 
is thus prepared to take up another load. It is a most useful 
instrument, and effects a great deal of work with a small 
expense of labour in a short time. It has been used many 
years in the United States, and is there called an ox-shovel. 




The plough which I saw frequently used in Italy was 
without a mould-board, and its share resembled the bowl of 
an inverted teaspoon, only more flat. It simply stirred the 
ground, but did not invert it. 

The spade is an instrument much used among the small 
farmers of Flanders ; and in the best cultivated districts, such 
as the Pays de Waes, they deem it necessary once in five or 
six years to trench their land completely to the depth of 
fifteen or seventeen inches with the spade. 

I saw nothing in the carts, waggons, or vehicles in use on 



266 SPADFJ HUSBANDRY. 

the Continent in any way to recommend tliera either to Eng- 
lish or American farmers. Nothing, however, can be more 
complete than the fitting out of a Flemish or Dutch farmer's 
team. The equipments in France and Italy are in general 
wretched in the extreme. In Italy and in Switzerland, oxen 
and cows are principally used for draft. In Italy the breed 
of cattle is extremely beautiful in appearance. In Italy, 
oxen are often brought out upon the roads to assist in 
dragging the coaches up their steep hills. They ordinarily 
draw by the horns or forehead ; but where a yoke is used over 
the neck, I have found a basket of stones hung at the centre 
to keep it down, that it might not impede the breathing of 
the cattle. Instead of bows, there were ropes round the necks 
of the cattle. 

The Dutch collar for draft horses has been the subject 
of much improvement, and the horses used in the Belgian 
artillery are said to have derived an immense advantage 
from its improved character. The first object has been to 
avoid, as much as possible, a horizontal draft, and, therefore, 
the point of attaching the chain or trace is placed high on 
the collar, so that it may not affect the breathing of the 
animal ; the second, to avoid galling the neck of the horse, 
and for this reason the collars are made open to buckle 
at the top, by which means they can be better adjusted to 
the neck of the animal. Great stress, and I believe very 
justly, is laid upon having the collars made so as to open at 
one end at pleasure. 

XXX. SPADE HUSBANDRY. 

An implement which has accomplished an immense amount 
in some parts of continental Europe, is the spade ; and 
when we reflect upon the actual amount of labour effected 
by this simple tool, managed by the human hand alone, 
the elevations which have been levelled, the canals which 



SPADE HUSBANDRY. 267 

have been dug, and the mighty embankments which have 
been raised, one is filled with astonishment at the great 
effects which are brought about by the most simple means, 
and at the vast results of combined and persevering labour. 

A great amount of land is cultivated by the spade in 
Belgium, Holland, France, and Germany. Indeed, vast 
extents of land, especially in the vine-growing districts, on 
the steep acclivities and on the summits of high hills which 
are cultivated, are entirely inaccessible to horses or cattle. 
The ground is tilled by the spade ; the manure is carried up, 
and the produce is brought down on the backs of men or 
women. It is stated in a statistical work, now in the course 
of publication in France, that not less than forty millions of 
acres in that country are cultivated by the spade. This 
strikes me as an over-statement ; yet the amount is, doubt- 
less, very considerable. In Flanders the cultivation is 
mixed, with the spade and the plough ; the land for grain 
crops is wrought with the plough and laid in beds or stitches, 
and the intervals are dug out with the sjDade, and the seed 
sown on the beds is covered with the dirt thrown out of these 
intervals. This is all done with the greatest care, and this is 
the occasion of the extreme neatness and exactness which 
appears in their cultivation. 

In the case of very small farms of a few acres, all the 
work is executed by the spade or the hoe. It may in- 
terest my readers to see the calculation made by the late 
Rev. Mr. Rham, a gentleman highly esteemed for his agri- 
cultural knowledge, and his zeal in agricultural improve- 
ments, as to the amount of produce which may be obtained 
" from fifteen Grhent acres of light land and moderate fertility, 
which should be cultivated by the spade, Avitli the help of 
a horse and cart ; and will maintain four milch cows, and 
a heifer ; a horse, two or three hogs, and a couple of young- 
pigs ; sending to market, or consuming in the family, the 
following produce, deducting seed : — 



268 SPAUE HUSBANDRY. 

90 bushels of wheat. 

90 „ lye. 

80 „ buckwheat. 

100 „ oats, leaving 20 bushels for the horse. 

An acre of flax. 

60 bushels of rape seed. 
8 cwt. of butter, from four cows. 
2 fat hogs. 

A heifer and two calves, sold annually." 
This is an extraordinary amount, and yet I have no doubt 
it may be realized. 

I am not about to enter into a comparison of spade hus- 
bandry with that carried on by the plough, and the help of 
brute labour ; but there are many cases in which, owing to 
the superabundance, and consequent cheapness of human 
labour, it may present a fortunate alternative. It is stated 
to require the labour of a man sixteen days to dig an acre, 
and thirty-two days to trench it, which would be going two 
spits deep. Labour in Flanders is about ten pence, or 
twenty cents a day, without feed, which would render it 
much less expensive than ploughing. 

In cultivating land with brute labour, it is to be remem- 
bered that on few small farms can a team be kept constantly 
at labour ; but the expense of the keep goes on whether the 
team labours or not. The cultivation by a spade is much 
more thorough than by a plough ; much less seed is re- 
quired, and much better crops are produced. A bushel and 
a quarter of wheat to an acre is ample, because every seed is 
carefully covered, and thus secured from the birds, and 
buried only at such a depth that it rises easily. The culti- 
vation is much cleaner from weeds, and the manure is more 
thoroughly intermixed with the soil. The land is made 
friable, and the deep cultivation gives the roots of the plant 
ample opportunity to expand themselves. The beneficial 
eifects of a good trenching will continue for five or six years. 



LIVE STOCK. _ 269 

How far it may bo expedient to adopt it on any large scale, 
must depend on a variety of obvious circumstances, which in 
different situations must greatly vary. The expense of keep- 
ing such teams of horses as are kept in England, and in 
many parts of the Continent — I speak particularly as to 
their consumption of food — to say nothing of their equipments 
and deterioration in value, is enormous. It seems the great 
drawback in England to a farmer's prosperity. What might 
be accomplished where a superabundance of human labour 
exists, w^hat should be done with a starving population 
around you, anxious to be employed, and willing to work, 
are for the consideration of those who find themselves placed 
in these painful circumstances. Such is the sad condition of 
many parts of the European continent. The example of a 
Flemish farmer supporting himself, and wife, and three chil- 
dren, keeping a cow, and fatting a hog, upon the produce of 
two and a half acres of land ; and selling, for various pur- 
poses, the produce of three and a half other acres, he being 
able, with the help of his wife and children, to cultivate well 
the whole six acres, and to have a great deal of time left for 
other purposes, is, I am assured, often to be found in Bel- 
gium, and strikingly illustrates the success of quiet and 
patient industry, joined to temperance and economy. 



XXXI. LIVE STOCK. 

In respect to the live stock of the Continent, a traveller 
perceives at once that, with the exception of horses, little 
attention has been paid to the improvement of the different 
breeds. Perhaps I should except sheep likewise, as I shall 
presently show. In this respect England distances all other 
countries within my observation ; and has displayed a skill, 
perseverance, enterprise, and success, which are admirable ; 
and which, in enormous prices, have been liberally compen- 



270 LIVE STOCK. 

sated. A thousand guineas for a bull, six hundred guineas 
for a cow, or three hundred guineas a year for the service of a 
ram, ring in one's ears like music from the regions of romance. 
The symmetry of proportion, and the extraordinary degree of 
fatness to which some animals are forced, as may be seen 
particularly at the Smithfield Christmas show, in London, 
and the extreme beauty of the improved stock of England, 
are most remarkable. Aptitude to fatten, early maturity, 
and great weight of carcase, in proportion to the age, and 
the amount or cost of the food required, are points of great 
value in any race of animals which are designed for food. But 
beauty, either of form or colour, has only an imaginary value, 
and no necessary connexion with its product, either in beef 
or milk ; and the extreme obesity of many prize animals is 
often obtained at an expense to the farmer or amateur much 
beyond any price which the animal is likely to command in 
the market. Early maturity is a point of great importance ; 
for, excepting where animals are kej^t for labour, animals 
kept a day beyond their readiness for a fair market, are 
almost always kept at a loss. The secret of profit is in 
general in a quick exchange. I have known a farmer to 
weigh repeatedly two fattening oxen of fine thrift, and size, 
and extreme fatness, and he discovered that, for a whole 
month before they were sent to market, they had not gained 
a single pound. They appear to have reached their acmfe, 
beyond which they could not be forced. It is a curious fact 
in regard* to the human animal, that in a condition of health 
no change of diet and no abundance of diet ever carries him 
beyond a certain point ; so that every adult man has what 
he terms his own weight, which does not vary for years. 
Whether an analogy to this fact is to be found in the inferior 
animals, would, as far as it is possible to be ascertained, be a 
curious and useful inquiry. Ordinarily, I admit, not always, 
animals consume in proportion to their size. I believe it 
will be found, in general, that two small, or medium-sized 



LIVE STOCK. 271 

animals, of good constitution and thrift, pay the farmer 
better, in proportion to the amount of food consumed, than 
one large animal, which would give an equal or superior 
weight. The English farmers generally consider the small 
Highland cattle the most profitable for fattening. We know 
certainly that the milking properties of cows do not always 
bear a proportion to their size. The two best cows which I 
have known — one making 194lbs. of butter in a week, and 
more than 480lbs. in a year ; and the other having produced 
more than 201bs. in a week — were two medium-sized cows of 
the North Devonshire breed ; and it seems an established 
prejudice, if so it must be called, that fatness, and the abun- 
dant secretion of milk, in the same animal, at the same time, 
are to a degree incompatible with each other. 

1. Oxen and Cows. — I saw some very large oxen from 
Normandy in a fat condition on exhibition at Poissy. The 
cattle, however, most admired on that occasion were a cross 
of the improved Durham short-horn with some of the best 
breeds of the country. 

The cows, as met with ordinarily in France, are inferior. 
They show in the early part of the season the effects of bad 
keeping in winter, and appear scarcely to recover from it 
during the season. The cows, at several private establish- 
ments which I visited, were admirable for their milking 
properties, but of no particular race ; though at Grignon, 
at Petit-Bourg, and generally, I found the Swiss cows held 
in high estimation. The Dutch cows have been a long time 
celebrated for their abundance of milk, which does not sur- 
prise one in looking at the rich polders in which in summer 
they are fed, and where they are often seen covered with a 
cloth as a protection against both the dampness and the cold. 
Being unacquainted with the Dutch language, I found it dif- 
ficult to get as particular information as I desired. Radclifie, 
in his book on Flanders, says, that " they are fair milkers ; 



272 LIVE STOCK. 

but in this respect notliing remarkable, the average quantity, 
excepting in the grass districts, where it is infinitely greater, 
being computed at about seven quarts each cow in the 
twenty-four hours, through summer and winter." I quote 
this passage for two reasons ; first, to show how loosely many 
people speak and write on such subjects, for one is wholly at 
a loss to know how much a product infinitely greater than 
seven quarts may be supposed to be ; and next, to say that an 
average yield of seven quarts per day winter and summer is 
a very great yield, and is seldom equalled. There is another 
report of a farmer at the Hague, furnished to Sir John Sin- 
clair, where the milk establishment of forty cows produced 
only about three quarts per day to each cow throughout the 
year. 

The produce of a Dutch cow is rated at about 80 lbs. of 
butter, and 180 lbs. of whole-milk cheese, in a year, which 
certainly is not an extraordinarily large amount. They are 
generally of a black and white colour. In some cases they 
are milked three times in a day. In the greater part of 
Flanders I found them soiled upon clover or vetches, but prin- 
cipally clover ; in Holland, they remain in the pasture all 
summer, where they are milked ; but in winter they make a 
part of the family, and, in truth, live in the common eating- 
room of the family, it being a part of the main house. 

The Swiss cows, as far as they have come under my 
observation, are to be considered of two kinds ; the cows 
o-rdinarily kept on the common farms, and the mountain 
cows. The cows I found at Hofwyl are, from appearance and 
the accounts I received of them, the very finest of their kind. 
They are large, but not tall ; broad in the back, full and 
square behind ; fine boned, and with large udders, giving 
great quantities of milk. It is difHcult, especially at any dis- 
tance of time, and when innumerable objects are passing 
before the mind, to compare two objects, unless they are pre- 
sent ; but I think I have never seen finer animals of the 



LIVE STOCK. 273 

kind. The race is known as the Cimmentlial ; and un- 
doubtedly great pains have been taken in their selection and 
management. 

I am at a loss to state the amount of milk given, or 
butter produced by these cows, because I do not know the 
capacity of the Swiss measure ; but they are evidently deep 
milkers, and as well as I could understand they give from 
sixteen to twenty-eight quarts of milk per day, and about 
two hundred pounds of butter by the year. These cows were 
reported to me to weigh from 700 to 1 200 lbs, ; they were 
exceedingly broad and round ; short and fine in the leg ; in 
high condition, and extremely well covered ; and in their 
whole appearance excelled by none which I have seen. I 
saw many of these fine animals for sale in the cattle-market 
at Berne. 

There is another kind in Switzerland, which may be called 
the mountain cow, because I found them principally in the 
most hilly districts of the country. These were a small-sized 
animal of beautiful form, small limbs, exceedingly light of 
foot, evidently fitted to climb hills and precipices, and with 
eyes as bright as those of a gazelle, and not unlike a deer in 
their movements. These cows did not promise much in 
milk. 

In Italy, where oxen are much used for draft, the breed of 
cattle is principally of a dingy white, of a medium size, and 
keeping in fair condition, but with no particular quality to 
recommend them. Oxen and cows seemed to be worked in- 
discriminately, sometimes singly, and often yoked together. 
In most cases they draw by a band of some kind, which 
brings the point of draft upon the forehead at the foot of the 
horns. All their yokes and trappings are of the most ordi- 
nary and singular character, and seem to carry one back to 
the very infancy of the arts. Indeed, in Italy nothing, as far 
as I saw, could be more awkward than all arrangements 
of this sort, excepting in parts of Ireland, where hay is car- 

T 



274 LIVE STOCK. 

ried to market tied, or rather gatliered, into two large bun- 
dles, and swung across the back of a donkey. 

2. Goats. — In Switzerland, I found in the mountainous 
districts large herds of goats, who are brought down from the 
mountains at night to be milked, and sent away again at 
daylight in the morning. Many small families kept one goat 
in their stables to supply the family with milk. They give 
about one pint of very rich and delicious milk each per day ; 
sometimes more. Among the mountaineers of Ireland, near 
the lakes of Killarney, I found many families keeping goats 
for their milk ; one family having as many as thirty. These 
were kept for the comfort and luxury of travellers, who 
visited these wild and picturesque regions. They are kept 
at a small expense, and were it not for their wandering and 
mischievous propensities, a milch goat would be a treasure in 
the family of a poor man. They might easily be fed by the 
waste vegetables of a poor man's garden or his frugal table ; 
though in most of the poor families in Europe there are 
other mouths who claim first to be satisfied, and leave little 
waste of any kind. The milk of goats is rich, and is often 
recommended to invalids by high medical authority. 

3. Asses. — Of all beasts of burden or draft in Europe, 
asses are, perhaps, the most common. Mules are bred and 
used largely in Spain, as I am informed ; and I found them 
in the mountainous parts of Switzerland for the use of travel- 
lers in places and passes where carriages cannot be used, and 
where sureness of foot is particularly desired. But asses are 
every where common, and, for the purposes to which they are 
applied, are certainly most serviceable animals. They are in 
general of a small size, and cost from one to two pounds, or 
from five to ten dollars ; their keep is of the hardest descrip- 
tion, and they live to a great age. One was used constantly 
at Carisbrooke Castle, in the Isle of Wight, for drawing 



LIVE STOCK. 275 

water from a very deep well seventy years, and he was re- 
placed by another, who, when I was there, had been employed 
for many years. This most useful race of animals presents an 
examjile of the humiliating truth, that real substantial merit 
does not always find its place in this world ; that grateful 
and kind treatment does not always follow the services ren- 
dered ; that abuse of power is too common a fault ; and 
that exterior appearance and address are a surer passport to 
favour than solid and useful qualities. I cannot say, how- 
ever, that this is without exception, for I found in some cases 
in Manchester, in England, among the Irish, the donkey 
living in the same room with the rest of the family, and 
sharing in their comforts, such as they were. Whether this 
was to be considered as an advance upon the usual compa- 
nionship of an Irish cabin, I shall not determine. It shows 
at least an amiable trait of character to acknowledge our 
obligations, and quite in the equality and fraternity style of 
the times. 

4. Horses. — The Flemish horses have long been celebrated, 
and most deservedly so, as I have seen for their purpose no 
horses superior. In France and the Low Countries, horses ex- 
clusively are used for agricultural labour. In Flanders, two 
horses are allowed to fifty acres of land. In many cases the 
farms are accessible by canals, and manures are brought and 
produce carried away in boats, which, of course, on still waters 
are navigated at a small expense. The Flemish horses are of a 
medium size, compact, active, strong, and extremely well 
equipped ; these farmers being very proud of their teams, as 
indeed they well may be. Add to this, they are groomed 
with extraordinary care. In my journey from Antwerp to 
Rotterdam by diligence, it is hardly possible to praise the 
horses too much, for their beauty, speed, and equipments. 

The French work horses are admirable, and surprised 
me by their excellence. I refer particularly to a breed called 

T 2 



276 LIVE STOCK. 

the Picheron, bred in the interior of France, and used in tlie 
diligences and the omnibuses in Paris. Tlie horses gene- 
rally employed in these cases are unaltered, which clearly 
does not improve their temper or manners ; they are rather 
under than over size ; they are not groomed with much nicety, 
nor harnessed with any show ; they are, however, kept in 
good condition, and almost exclusively for work ; they are 
small-boned, well filled out, and extremely compact ; their 
usual travelling gait, according to my experience, with im- 
mense loads, is from six to seven miles an hour : in the mail 
coaches in France, the rate of travelling is ten to twelve 
miles an hour ; and no where are there more punctuality 
and despatch. The Flemish cart-horse, and the breed of 
French horses to which I have referred, would in my opinion 
prove a most valuable acquisition to the United States. The 
Flemish horse is slow in his movements ; the French horse 
extremely active and vigorous ; their ordinary height is 
fifteen and a half hands. 

The mode of keeping horses diifers much in different places. 
They are almost universally soiled in summer upon green 
food, either clover, vetches, or lucerne. I have already men- 
tioned the case of a large contractor for conveying the mails, 
who was accustomed, besides straw and hay, to give rye bread 
in certain quantities, whenever the price of oats or other 
forage or provender made it upon a fair calculation expedient. 
For the health of the horses he much approved this food. 
His stock exceeded four hundred horses : oats are almost 
always deemed an expensive article ; but the best farmers 
recommend to give them in the straw cut up. Carrots are 
much valued in Flanders for horses ; and considerable quan- 
tities of beans are grown in France for horses, and given 
in a bruised or half-ground form. The Flemish give their 
horses what is called a white drink, that is, water mixed with 
some portion of rye or buck-wheat meal ; and sometimes oil- 
bake is dissolved in it. 



LIVE .STUCK. 277 

111 some parts of Flanders, the allowance for a liorso is in 
winter fifteen pounds of liay, ten pounds of straw, and seven 
pounds of oats per day. In summer, clover is given instead 
of hay and straw, seven pounds of oats, and their water 
whitened with rye-meal. In another district, in winter, about 
six quarts of oats, thirty-five pounds of hay, or in place of 
fifteen pounds of hay, about seventy pounds or a bushel of 
carrots. In summer, seven quarts of oats ; eighty pounds of 
green clover are given. Instead of the oats, about four quarts 
of bruised beans are given. The Flemish, are always anxious 
to have their horses in the best possible working condition. 
Excepting only the white drink, the keeping of the French 
horses does not materially differ from that of the Flemish. 
The advantages of cutting and mixing food for horses are 
universally acknowledged, on the score of economy to the 
farmer, and of utility to the animal fed. 

5. Swine. — The swine are almost every where on the Con- 
tinent, as far as I saw them, miserable ; lank, lean, gaunt, 
and, if they have not a good point about them, they certainly 
have other points in great profusion. If it was a herd of 
such swine as one meets with continually in France and on 
the Continent, which were on one occasion driven into the 
sea and there perished, the owners certainly could have had 
little ground of complaint. At Grignon I saw some of the 
improved breeds of England introduced, and it is to be hoped 
that they will extend themselves ; at present the race seems 
under a curse. 

6. Sheep. — I shall say little of the sheep of tiie Continent. 
The sheep seen on the rich meadows in Holland are of a 
large size, with long coarse wool and a heavy fleece. The 
Saxony sheep are well known for the fineness of their wool, 
their small size, and their tenderness of constitution. I 
have already said that I found some excellent results at 



278 DAIRIES, 

Grignon and Alfort fiom crossing the Merino with the South- 
Down, but sufficient time has not been had to decide whether 
it may be persevered in with advantage ; a point by no means 
cfetermined. 

The pure Merino sheep, which were exhibited at Poissy 
from the farm of Mr. Gilbert, near Grignon, and originally of 
the stock at Rambouillet, were, beyond all comparison, the 
finest of the kind I have ever seen ; and, I believe, of the 
very best kind of sheep, for the United States, which could 
be raised. They would weigh full twenty pounds a quarter 
when dressed ; their wool is of a fine quality, and their fleeces 
extremely large and heavy. An intelligent American farmer 
who was with me at one time when I saw them, and on 
whose opinion, from his having been a great wool-grower, I 
should place much reliance, perfectly coincided with me in 
my impressions of the merits of these extraordinarily 
beautiful sheep. They are not so large or fat for mutton 
sheep as the Leicester or South-Down of England, in Avhich 
country mutton, being a favourite food, is much more an 
object of demand than in the United States, but they are 
sufficiently large for mutton, and the superior fineness of their 
wool gives them a peculiar value. There exists with some 
persons a prejudice against Merino mutton, but it is entirely 
without reason. 



XXXII. DAIRIES. 

Holland and portions of Flanders are largely devoted to 
the grazing of cattle, and to the making of butter and cheese. 
The Dutch butter is much celebrated ; it is strongly salted 
and neatly packed, and may be shipped to advantage. 
Cheese is largely manufactured in Holland. The Dutch 
cheeses are well known. They are professedly made of 
whole milk, but I must be permitted to distrust this cer- 



DAIRIES. '279 

tainty in respect to those wliicli I have tasted. They are 
made in the form of cannon-balls, weighing about seven 
pounds each. They are an article of extensive commerce, 
and are sent to market as early as they can be got ready. 
They are exported largely both to France and England. The 
taste of them is good, but in richness they are very inferior to 
the best English cheeses. 

The Dutch dairy-rooms are models of neatness. The 
French denominate this quality by an expressive word, 
propriety ; and, in the case of the Dutch farmers, it seems 
impossible it should be exceeded. Their vessels, pans, tubs, 
presses, shelves, dippers, every thing, in short, connected with 
the dairy is marked by a cleanness which seems jDcrfect, and 
they are bright with excessive brightness. The town of 
Broeck has been long celebrated for its cleanness, and here 
not a horse ever comes ; the streets or passages to the 
houses are paved with bricks, or with rounded stones from 
the sea-shore ; and a well-dressed lady might almost sit 
down in the streets without soiling her robes. The neatness 
of these places is proverbial. I cannot say that I have not 
seen it equalled in some private examples ; and the sect 
of the United Brethren, otherwise called the Shakers, in the 
United States, are quite as much distinguished in their 
houses and settlements for their excessive cleanness ; but it 
is clearly impossible in this respect " to beat the Dutch ;" 
and this most comfortable, agreeable, I will add beautiful, 
habit of the Dutch, is no where surpassed. 

The French butter, as found in the markets of Paris, 
seems the perfection of this article. It is generally sold 
entirely fresh, and that of the first quality is delicious. It is 
found fresh in the markets in winter as well as in summer, 
and is coloured with the juice of the carrot. The French 
offer for sale fifty-three different kinds of cheese. Having 
tasted of but few, it would be presumptuous in me to charac- 
terize the whole. The cream cheese is excellent. The Neuf- 



280 DAIRIES. 

chatel, which is merely the curd fresh and slightly pressed, is 
much esteemed. The Rochefort resemhles the Stilton, and 
often equals it. These are deemed the best. I could learn 
nothing either in Holland or France peculiar either in 
making the cheese, or in the curing or use of the rennet. 
The Swiss cheese, called the Gruyere, is manufactured both 
in France and Switzerland, is much esteemed by many per- 
sons, but its flavour is excessively strong and not agreeable. 
I cannot, however, decide for the tastes of other persons. The 
celebrated Parmesan cheese, which commands eveiy where 
the highest price, is made in a limited district in Italy. Tlie 
mode of making it is kept a secret. It is of a light green 
colour, and delicious flavour. A distinguished farmer in 
Switzerland informed me that they had repeatedly en- 
deavoured to imitate it, but without success ; that the agri- 
cultural societies had offered large premiums for this object ; 
and that they had actually sent persons into the district where 
it is made, but they were unable to get the information. It 
is conjectured to depend mainly upon the nature of the feed 
which the cows obtain. The current opinion, that it is com- 
posed of a portion of asses milk, is considered by the best in- 
formed persons as without foundation. 

I have gone so fully into the subject of dairying in my 
observations upon English husbandry, that I shall not extend 
them. In Holland, the cows are generally pastured and 
milked in the field. In Flanders, in parts where good 
pasturage does not abound, they are soiled, and in one of the 
best districts half an acre of clover to a cow is considered 
ample for the summer. In winter they have hay, straw, 
carrots, turnips, or potatoes, in such proportions as a judicious 
feeder will see to be necessary. But there prevails universally 
in Flanders a practice of giving the cows a mixture of rye- 
meal, or the meal of buck -wheat with water. This is con- 
sidered as most indispensable, and, no doubt, contributes 
essentially to increase the milk. In general, the Flemish 



DAIRIES. 28 1 

farmers prefer a mixture of food both for their cows and 
their fatting cattle, cutting up straw, hay, turnips, and 
carrots together. 

There are modes of management in the Swiss dairies which 
are well worthy of notice. Where it is desired to avail them- 
selves of the feed upon the mountains, a herd of cows is 
driven there in the summer ; and some persons, men in the 
cases which I found, go with them, carrying their provision 
with them ; and, occupying a building which is only habitable 
in summer, tend the cows, and make the cheese. They 
carry little else than bread with them, and for this they have 
occasionally to descend the mountain, which, with the return, 
is no slight task ; but bread and butter-milk form their prin- 
cipal and almost sole diet. 

In another case, in a small village consisting, it may be, of 
fifty or a hundred families, I found an arrangement certainly 
peculiar, but which seemed excellent, and capable of being 
adopted to advantage in many other situations. Some of 
the villagers kept one only, some two or three cows. A man 
and his wife, skilled in making cheese, were employed, in a 
suitable building, with all the necessary fixtures, to make 
the cheese for the village. The milk was carried to the 
place for making the cheese, morning and evening, and 
there measured and receipted for. Of the whey, each one, 
when he carried his milk, got his proportion in return. The 
cheese was sold on joint account ; and, after deducting ex- 
penses, the proceeds were divided according to each one's 
contributions. This arrangement was excellent ; first, for 
those who kept onty one or two cows, and who could not, 
under the circumstances, make cheese but to a disadvantage ; 
second, it saved the difficulty and trouble of a dairy-maid in 
the family — a class of persons who are always difficult to be 
procured ; and, third, it assured the good quality of the 
cheese, by its being made by a person of known and acknow- 
ledged skill. 



282 . ' FARM-HOUSES. 



XXXIII. FARM-HOUSES. 



A Dutch farm-house is a remarkable object. They are 
seen scattered and alone at considerable distances from each 
other, over their extensive meadows, generally surrounded 
by a few trees. At a distance they appear like enormous 
bams. They are generally square, covering a large extent 
of ground, of one story in height, and with a roof rising to 
at least twice the height of the body of the house, gathering 
in from the four sides of the house, and terminating in a 
central point at the top, like an Egyj)tian pyramid. This 
roof is entirely devoted to the storage of grain and hay. The 
lower part of the house comprehends a dwelling for the 
family, sleeping rooms, and a parlour or drawing-room, which 
is never used but upon great occasions, such as the death or 
marriage of some one in the family, and a kitchen, adjoining 
which is the keeping-room of the family. Adjoining this 
kitchen, in truth making a part of it, are the cow-stalls ; and 
adjoining this a room for the storage of the cheese, for the 
milk, the churns, the press, the tubs, and other dairy utensils, 
which, whether of wood or of brass, are kept in the most 
polished condition. The cow-stalls are so constructed that 
two cows occupy one stall together, tied by chains, with 
their heads to the walls, and behind them is a deep trench 
or drain, into which all the solid and liquid manure is re- 
ceived. The solid is immediately conveyed away to the heap 
outside the door, and the liquid is drained into a covered 
cistern at the side of the stable, on the outside of the house. 
Into this cistern flow likewise all the slops of the house 
and of the dairy, and the drain is kept constantly clean by 
water. In summer the cows are kept and milked in the 
pasture ; the stalls are then most thoroughly scoured and 
cleaned out, and either carpeted or sanded ; and exhibit the 
same perfect neatness as the rest of the apartment in which 



FARM-HOUSES. 283 

tlie family live. In all cases, both in Holland and Flanders, 
tlie cow-stalls, while occupied by the cows, are frequently 
Avashed with water, which, besides the purpose of cleanliness, 
serves to increase the contents of the urine cistern ; and over 
every stall is a cord suspended, by which the tail of the cow 
is tied when milked, to prevent her slapping the face of the 
milker, or throwing any dirt into the pail. Indeed, the neat- 
ness of all their arrangements is perfect. The farmer and 
labourers have their clean shoes or slij^pers at the door, where 
they always exchange their out-door shoes on entering, that 
they may bring no dirt into the house. The contrast be- 
tween a Dutch farm-house and an Irish cabin or wigwam, is 
most remarkable. 

The Swiss farm-house differs entirely from the Dutch. It 
is a somewhat stately erection, generally of two stories and 
high roof, with a piazza in front of the second story, to which 
there is access from the outside by steps. The lower stoiy, 
or ground floor, is occupied by the live stock ; and the second 
floor by the family.. This spirit of fraternization and equality, 
which appears both among the Dutch and the Swiss, in re- 
gard to those useful animals upon whom their living and 
wealth depend, is certainly an amiable trait of character ; 
and is much more harmless in its operation, if we may judge 
from the results in the two cases, than when applied to human 
society. The neatness of several of the Swiss farm-houses 
which I visited, if not so remarkable as that of the Dutch, is 
really exemplary. My readers will excuse me, I trust, for 
giving a small example of extreme frugality. In going into 
one of the farm-houses in Switzerland, I observed a consider- 
able parcel of egg-shells laid together upon a shelf, as if to 
be kept. Upon inquiry, I found that the good housewife 
saved these for the hens to eat in Avinter, that they might 
have them when the ground should be covered with snow, 
and they could get no lime from the ground, to form the 
shells of their eggs. 



284 SWISS FARMING. 



XXXIV. SWISS FARMING. 

The farming in Switzerland varies very much in differ- 
ent cantons or districts. The soil varies, and the rugged 
aspect and broken and mountainous character of the coun- 
tiy give a variety to their cultivation and modes of life, 
which at once impress a visiter. The habits and appear- 
ance of the population certainly differ much in different 
parts ; and I was told that I could immediately distinguish a 
Protestant from a Catholic canton by the superior industry, 
economy, good management, and prosperity of the former 
over the latter. I believe there is something in this ; but it 
is by no means so marked or decisive as I was assured. I 
am not conscious of any religious prejudices whatever, hold- 
ing religion itself as a very different affair from the forms 
which it assumes, believing that there may be true religion 
under any and eveiy form of expression, and, indeed, often 
where there is no outward form ; and desirous to regard all 
the forms under which the religious sentiment is expressed 
with all the indulgence with which I ask that my own should 
be regarded. But the numberless saints' days, festivals and 
fasts, the keeping of which is made obligatory in Catholic 
countries, abstract materially from the time which would 
otherwise be devoted to labour ; and it is certainly true that 
that liberal education and freedom of thought, which would 
prompt to enterprise, experiment, and improvement, as much 
in the agricultural as in any other art, is not so common in 
Catholic as in Protestant countries. 

There are large portions of Switzerland wholly devoted to 
pasturage, and which, from their inaccessibility to the plough, 
can be applied to no other purpose. In these cases, where 
cows could not go, goats find their way. But wherever the 
plough or the spade can be used they are diligently em- 
ployed, and this activity is stimulated in many parts of the 



SWISS FARMING. 285 

country by a dire struggle to procure a subsistence under 
circumstances most inauspicious and severe. In parts of 
Switzerland, the melting of tlie snow on small patches of 
ground is hastened by throwing small fragments of slate-stone 
upon it, such, I may say, is the necessary impatience to get 
at the ground seasonably to put the seed in for a crop. 

In some parts the country is open, and fields of consider- 
able extent are under admirable cultivation ; in other places, 
the smallest nook, the least patch by a running stream, and 
the most secluded valley, will be husbanded with the greatest 
care. The valley of Chamouni, enclosed by lofty mountains 
covered with the snows of untold centuries, and running at 
the very foot of Mont Blanc, the sublime monarch of these 
Alpine heights, was green and beautiful, waving with crops of 
grain ; and when I was there, covered with merry hay- 
makers. I may add, that these haymakers were almost all of 
them stout and active women, whom I saw mowing as well as 
making, raking, and loading hay. They were very cheerful, 
and seemed to enjoy niddy health. The fields were certainly 
well mowed. Many of the out-door employments to which 
women are accustomed on the Continent are highly objec- 
tionable ; mowing seems to me too hard for their. strength ; 
but I really can see no objection to their performance of 
many of the kinds of labour which are required on a farm. 
It may not contribute to preseiTe their beauty, though this 
is wholly a luatter of personal taste ; but it will assist to 
preserve their health, and give them muscular energy and 
vigour. The long and dreadful wars of Europe, which made 
such demands upon the men in order to fill the ranks of the 
army, compelled the women, in the absence of their husbands, 
sons, and brothers, to do the work of the fields ; and the prac- 
tice is, and is likely to be, continued. I have met with 
several of my countiymen abroad speaking with some si;r- 
prise of women performing the labours of men on the Conti- 
nent, as though such a practice did not prevail in their own 



286 HOFWYL. IRRIGATION. 

country. But in all the slave states, do not the women work 
indiscriminately as the men ? Ah ! but then they are ne- 
groes ; this puts them into another category, and complexion 
appears to bring their humanity into question. In the arable 
districts of Switzerland I was told that the farms consisted 
usually of fifty acres, and many of these farms gave the 
strongest indications of independence and comfort. The 
farms in Switzerland are divided by fences ; and, with the 
exception of the loftiest heights, it may be said that a Swiss 
very much resembles a New England landscape. 



XXXV. HOFWYL. IRRIGATION. 

I visited in Switzerland the celebrated establishment of 
the late Mr. De Fellenberg, at Hofwyl, near Berne, for educa- 
tion. No school is better known ; and it is believed that 
none ever better deserved public esteem and confidence. It 
does not come within my province to speak of it in this place 
as a literary institution ; but as a farm it may be considered 
as a model well worth studying. I have already spoken of 
the cows at this place, of which there were sixty, the superiors 
to which, in condition and produce, have not come within 
my view. 

The most remarkable improvement which I witnessed in 
this place was in irrigation. The land irrigated was in the 
shape of a bowl or basin, of which one side was wanting. The 
water, after turning a flour mill, was brought a considerable 
distance in a race way on a bank, and then was carried round 
through successive rivulets formed round the sides of this 
semicircle or amphitheatre, watering the intervals between 
these gutters or trenches, and afterwards spreading itself 
over an extensive piece of flat land ; thus, at pleasure, water- 
ing one hundred and fifty acres of land. Nothing which I 
have seen could be better managed ; and the success of the 



IIOFWYL. IRRIGATION. 287 

improvement has been a valuable compensation for any ex- 
pense which has been incurred. The land is kept continually 
in grass, and the water is let on several times in a season. It 
was deemed inexpedient to keep the water on more than half 
a day at a time. 

I shall find no more suitable place than this to mention 
the irrigation in the neighbourhood of Milan. This is a level 
and most fertile country. A good deal of rice is cultivated 
in its neighbourhood. The fields have their trenches and 
cross ditches and embankments made with great care. The 
water is brought fi'om a neighbouring lake, and these fields 
are irrigated at pleasure. Where there are facilities for it, or 
where even they can be formed within any reasonable ex- 
pense, there are no more successful improvements than irri- 
gation. Even simple pure water is of great fertilising power ; 
still more when it brings with it the washings of cultivated 
fields, or other enriching matters, which it may collect in its 
course. A diversity of opinion prevails as to the length of 
time during which water may be allowed to remain on the 
land. The passage of the water over the land is preferred to 
having it remain stagnant ; and an irrigation of a few 
hours' duration is generally considered more eligible than a 
longer continuance. 

The farm at Hofwyl presents all the improvements which 
modern art and skill could bring to it ; with the most im- 
proved implements in use. Indeed, it may be considered as 
a model farm. A considerable number of the pupils were 
lads, who pay the expenses of their education and living by 
their labour. There were sixty cows on the farm, of which I 
have already spoken. The number of pupils at this institu- 
tion, which has heretofore been very great, furnished the best 
possible market for the abundant produce of the farm. 



288 AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL AT HOFWYL. 



XXXVI. AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL AT HOFWYL. 

The literary institution is now suspended, but tlie pre- 
sent proprietor, Mr. Fellenberg, has established an agricul- 
tural school in the neighbourhood, with which is connected 
a farm of some hundred acres for experiments, instruction, 
and use. The fixtures and arrangements, the stock and 
implements, are of the most improved and best description. 
It is intended to embrace both theory and practice ; accom- 
plished teachers in every branch will be furnished, and the 
course of instruction will be as complete as at Grignon, of which 
I have already given a full account. The term of study is 
fixed at three years, but the second and third year the pupils 
will be paid for some portion of their labour. I have seen 
few situations, which, in respect to health and comfort, and 
the means of agricultural improvement, promise better. 

The Swiss farming may be considered under two great 
divisions, that of mountain and low-land. The markets of 
several large towns in Switzerland which I visited, certainly 
abounded in fine vegetables and fruits ; but these must 
have come from the more favoured districts. The condition 
of the mountaineers in the most wild and inhospitable districts 
of the country must be excessively severe and hard. 

The general appearance of the population, however, wher- 
ever I saw them, was creditable. There could evidently be 
no want of industry among them, though in the purely pas- 
toral districts there seemed little occasions for labour beyond 
the climbing their acclivities and tending their flocks. One 
can comprehend much of the Swiss history, when visiting 
regions so little accessible, so desolate, so wild, and so full of 
peril to life. Persons accustomed to dwell in such places, 
quite remote from observation and beyond all restraints, 
enjoy the freedom of their own eagles and their own 



LODl's BENEVOLENT ESTABLISHMENT. 289 

chamois goat ; and it is quite easy to understand with what 
reluctance such free and brave spirits Avould submit to any 
restraints upon their liberty. 

XXXVII. LODI'S BENEVOLENT ESTABLISHMENT. 

1 found one himible establishment of a philanthropic cha- 
racter, of which I deem it my duty to take notice. In a 
quiet and secluded village in the canton of Berne, I went 
with some friends to visit a humble peasant by the name of 
Lodi. He was a man of powerful intellect, and extraordi- 
nary decision of character. His resolution once fixed, he was 
not easily turned aside from its execution. His mind from 
his childhood was profoundly impressed with a strong sense 
of religious duty, and his heart was warm with sympathy and 
benevolence for his fellow-men. He had received the advan- 
tages of a good common education, and had done much to- 
wards improving himself He had a very small patrimony 
left to him ; he married early, and had one child. He found 
in his wife a mind and resolution congenial with his own. 
Looking with pity upon many orphan and forsaken or 
neglected children about them, he determined to do what he 
could towards rescuing some of these unfortunate children, 
from the almost certain ruin which menaced them ; and his 
wife and himself agreed to receive as many of them as would 
be given to them for this purpose, and as he could possibly 
support by their united exertions. When I visited them, 
they had eighteen under their care, whom, in fact, they had 
adopted, for he made no difference between their treatment 
and that of his own child ; and they were all taught to look 
upon him and his wife as their parents, and themselves as 
brothers and sisters. They lived with them, and worked 
with them as their own children. He devoted a certain por- 
tion of every day to giving them a useful moral and religious 
education, and the rest of the time was given to work on the 

u 



290 LODI'S BENEVOLENT ESTABLISHMENT. 

land. Industry and useful labour, economy, frugality, con- 
tentment, universal kindness and love, mutual affection and 
forbearance, and the fear of God and a bumble and entire 
reliance upon bis providence, formed tbe great principles 
which governed the whole household ; and which presented 
themselves strongly illustrated in the examples of the father 
and mother of this household. This was exclusively an agri- 
cultural establishment, the girls and boys being taught and 
accustomed to all the labours and duties of their condition. 
He had had many difficulties to struggle with in feeding and 
clothing so large a family ; and in the scarcity of 1846, from 
the perishing of the potato, it was a most difficidt effort to 
get through, and he then received some slight aid from 
abroad. At first his views were suspected, and he was treated 
with distrust and ill-humour by the villagers. But he had 
conquered every hostile prejudice ; his disinterestedness and 
philanthropy are universally acknowledged ; his children 
are examples to all, of good conduct and improvement ; his 
neighbours feel happy to render him some aid, and he is 
known every where as the good father of the village. This 
is an eminent example of the noblest philanthropy ; of 
immense good being accomplished by the most limited and 
humble means ; and of what may be done by heroic self- 
sacrifice, by noble and generous purposes, by indomitable 
resolution, and unslacking perseverance. I saw his school, 
and witnessed his parental deportment among his family ; 
I sat down at his' frugal board, and partook of his simple 
meal of bread and cheese and wine, and I felt myself in the 
presence of the true nobility of human nature, and that no 
monarch in Europe had power to confer upon me a higher 
honour. It is not difficult to be charitable on a grand scale ; 
it is not difficult for a rich man to give away his superfluous 
thousands to any splendid charity, especially when he can 
use them no longer ; but to devote one's life to the poor, to 
be willing to share in their poverty, to take the stray lambs 



INSTITUTION FOR RECLAIMING VICIOUS CHILDREN. 291 

of the flock into one's bosom, and to make the orphans, the 
outcast, the houseless, your own children, and give them in 
the midst of poverty a useful education, and to qualify them 
for the business of life, to be useful and respectable, is an 
enterprise of the noblest character, conferring immortal 
honour on him who undertakes it. 



XXXVIII. INSTITUTION FOR RECLAIMING 
VICIOUS CHILDREN. 

In the neighbourhood of Berne, likewise, I visited another 
philanthropic institution, in which I was much interested. 
A few persons had contributed the means of purchasing a 
valuable and suitable estate for the purpose of establishing 
an agricultural school for vagabond boys, or those who have 
been convicted at the courts of law ; and who, after suffering 
the legal penalties of their crimes, and being released from 
prison without character, without friends, without a home, or 
the means of procuring an honest living, seem to have no 
alternative other than that of returning to their former 
course of idleness, beggary, and crime. This undertaking is 
thus far eminently successful ; they having found an in- 
dividual of high intellectual and moral attainments, and of 
indomitable resolution and great disinterestedness, who 
devotes himself to the reclamation and education of these 
poor and wretched children. About sixty individuals are 
now under his care. The farm is well cultivated, and chiefly 
by hand and spade labour. The most remarkable features 
about the establishment are the absence of all peculiar dress 
or external badges by which the boys should be distinguished ; 
and of all fences or bars by which the escape of the boys 
might be prevented. The boys are divided into parties of 
ten or twelve, who work together under the direction of a 
foreman. The whole discipline of the institution is moral ; 

u 2 



292 CONDITION OF THE POOR AND LABOURING CLASSES. 

and tlieir punishments for irregularities, idleness, or other 
faults, are of a kind much more to affect the mind and con- 
science of the pupils than their bodies. 



XXXIX. CONDITION OF THE POOR AND 
LABOURING CLASSES. 

Europe abounds with philanthropic institutions ; and there 
exists a large demand for them. In Switzerland a society 
has been formed in the agricultural districts, under the 
patronage of the government, " for the public good," intend- 
ing especially, under this comprehensive designation, to 
embrace all means or measures which may relieve, benefit, 
or improve the character and condition of the poorer and 
labouring classes. 

The condition of these classes in Europe, in general, 
strongly claims the interest of benevolent minds. Their 
wages are small ; tlieir toil in general hard ; their food 
scanty and mean ; and their comforts extremely few. It is 
one of the monstrous anomalies in the disposition of wealth, 
that those by whose toil it is created receive the smallest 
portion of it ; and, in the midst of a plenty growing out of 
their sweat and labour, they are often crippled by want, and 
perish with starvation. 

Philanthropic minds are now actively at work to discover 
a cure, or at least a mitigation, of this injustice ; but it is 
much more easy to complain of an evil, than to point out a 
remedy. The Swiss are proposing to give up all the public 
lands, and individuals with large possessions are offering to 
relinquish portions of their estates, that land may be given 
or furnished, on certain reasonable conditions, to the labour- 
ing poor, who are found to be rapidly increasing among 
them ; and who, in the mountainous districts, in some parts 
of the country, are as miserable as the poor Irish. I saw, 



CONDITION OF THE POOR AND LABOURING CLASSES. 293 

occasionally, on tlie Continent, cases of extreme destitution ; 
and, in those places wliicli liad been visited the previous year 
with the potato disease, I saw much and extreme poverty ; 
yet, I confess, I saw nothing on the Continent to equal the 
degradation, the squalidness, and wretchedness of the Irish, 
even before that sweeping calamity, which has consigned so 
many thousands of them to the grave. 

The French have recently proposed violent remedies for 
these acknowledged evils. The visionary and mad among 
them have demanded the perfect equalization of property, 
which, if carried out to its full extent, would result only in 
universal injustice and pillage. The scheme is as vain and 
impracticable, as to reduce the Alps of Switzerland to a level 
with the low countries of Holland and Belgium. The in- 
equalities in the condition of men do not constitute the 
great evils which are complained of A poor man is not in a 
worse condition because his neighbour is rich, unless the 
rich man abuses his power to injure him ; nor are the poor 
necessarily the poorer, except by comparison, for the riches of 
the community in which they live. As far as wealth is a 
stimulant to industry, and an instrument of good, it becomes 
a universal blessing. The insane, the blind, the deaf and 
dumb, the maimed, the sick, the old and decayed, the 
fatherless and friendless children, and, indeed, all who, by 
the dispensations of Divine Providence, are deprived of the 
power of helping and sustaining themselves, should be helped 
and sustained by the community. But what is to be done 
for the able-bodied labourers, who are not unwilling to work, 
but who have no opportunity of exerting their power ? This 
is a great question, and involves immense difficulties in the 
present organization of society. 

I see no grounds to hope for any immediate, speedy, or 
eifectual remedy for the evils which exist. I am not looking 
for an early millennium. The wealth of the world is every 
where increasing at a rapid rate, and almost beyond the 



294 CONDITION OF THE POOK AND LABOURING CLASSES. 

dreams of avarice. The poverty of the world seems increas- 
ing, especially in the old world, in a corresponding ratio. As 
wealth increases, the value of money is diminished ; but as 
the wages of labour do not increase as the value of money 
diminishes, and the prices of the articles of human subsist- 
ence increase ; and as the value of labour is continually 
diminished by the increase of labourers, and the augmenta- 
tion of the population goes on rapidly in a state of general 
peace, the condition of the labouring classes becomes the 
more straitened, and the great evil of unemployed, though 
willing labour, is augmented. 

One of the first duties of the state should be, not to give 
labour, but, as far as can be, to secure to every one willing 
to work, an opportunity of exerting his powers ; and, as far 
as is consistent with the general good, and prejudicial to no 
just rights of any, to do this in any way or form to which his 
inclinations may lead him, or to which his talents may be 
adapted. Monopolies of every description, excepting so far as 
they may be given as premiums to inventive genius, are to be 
condemned. The monopoly of land in the old world is a serious 
evil. The traveller passes over miles and miles of unoccupied 
and unimproved land, capable of sustaining its thousands and 
its millions in comfort ; and on the borders of these immense 
tracts finds thousands of human beings suffering and perish- 
ing, for the want of an opportunity of procuring their living out 
of this land, from which they are excluded. This tract belongs 
to the crown ; that tract belongs to the church ; these immense 
domains are held by some powerful individual, who chooses to 
keep it in its present state for his game preserves ; another 
large tract is devoted to some object, which, if it had its value 
centuries ago, has now ceased to be of use. Is there any 
reason why this land should not be made available to the 
support of perishing thousands, whose voluntary labour would 
make it so available ? In feudal times the powerful baron or 
lord took care of his vassals, and regarded himself as to a 



CONDITION OF THE POOR AND LABOURING CLASSES. 295 

degree bound to pi-ovidc for tliem from tlie estate, wliicli they 
cultivated and protected. Things in this respect are changed ; 
now the holders of large estates, who seem every where 
actuated exclusively hy a commercial spirit, feel no farther 
hound to their labourers, than to manage their estate in the 
least expensive mode possible, to take every advantage of the 
competition in the labour market, and get their work performed 
as cheajjly as possible ; and then, having got their labour 
accomplished, and having paid their labourers, in money, the 
miserable pittance promised, dismiss them without any farther 
concern for them. This grows out of the modern refinements 
of political economy, which measures all good and all values 
by a pecuniary standard. A state of South Carolina slavery, as 
far as the physical comforts of the labourer are concerned, 
has many advantages over this. 

All expectations of any great changes or improvements in 
the institutions of society are, in my humble opinion, vain. 
There is not wisdom enough, nor virtue enough, to effect, or, 
if effected, to maintain them. Ambition, the love of power, 
avarice, vanity, and pride, those mighty passions, which sway 
the heart, and whose power increases in correspondence with 
the means of indulgence, impose insurmountable impediments 
to the progress and influence of the true principles of Chris- 
tian equality, equity, and kindness. Men without power 
fancy they should not abuse it, if acquired ; but the posses- 
sion soon contradicts this promise. Poor men persuade 
themselves, if they were rich, their wealth would be used 
only to do good, and make others happy ; but the acquisition 
of wealth too often dries up all the springs of sympathy and 
kindness, and stimulates inordinately the thirst for farther 
acquisition. 

Violent revolutions present remedies full of terror and 
alarm ; sometimes only open new sources of wretchedness, 
and are but the change of one tyranny for another, and that 
even more severe and terrible. We may hope something 



296 CONDITION OF THE POOR AND LABOURING CLASSES. 

from advancing and extended education. This education 
may improve and enlighten public opinion ; and, in the 
present wide and constantly-extending influence of the press, 
public opinion seems to present the strongest barrier against 
the abuse of power, and to be the great exciter to justice arid 
to philanthropic exertion. In proportion as public sentiment 
is strong, and based upon and controlled by the principles 
of Christian equity, alas ! so little understood, we may hope 
for some substantial amelioration in the condition of society ; 
but this seems at present distant and uncertain. 

One is consoled in this case by looking at the amount of 
good which may be effected by such men as the Swiss 
peasant whom I have described. Suppose him successful in 
rescuing from wretchedness, and in forming to habits of indus- 
try, frugality, and good conduct, only the eighteen children, 
whom, like an affectionate shepherd, he has taken like lambs 
in his arms. Imagine these children going out into the 
world to multiply the good which he has done, and to spread 
its influences through the various ramifications of society. 
Wliat a rich harvest will arise, and be the precursor of other 
and richer harvests from the small seed sown by this disin- 
terested and noble, but poor and humble peasant. 

I fear my readers will think me straying from my proper 
duty, and I have, therefore, cut short these reflections. I 
could not pardon myself if I could look at the condition of 
the labouring classes in the old world without the deepest 
concern. At present, the farmers of the United States have 
the greatest reason to congratulate themselves, to say nothing 
of the higher duty of religious gratitude, for the circum- 
stances in which they are placed. There is there at present 
land enough for all, and open to the acquisition of even the 
humblest man, who is willing to labour, and to unite with this 
labour, temperance and frugality. 



IMPORTANT PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS. 297 



XL. IMPORTANT PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS. 

The great points to which I think the attention of Ameri- 
can farmers, and of other farmers, should be called I shall 
briefly enumerate. 

1. Thorough Draining and Deep Cultivation. — The first 
of all improvements should be the thorough draining and 
deep cultivation of the soil. The Deanston system of thorough 
draining and subsoiling has eifected immense benefits in 
England, and promises to establish itself as one of the 
greatest single improvements ever made in husbandry. In 
Flanders, thorough draining, as it is called, does not prevail ; 
but their surface-draining is most carefully attended to, and 
trenching with the spade is even much better, though in most 
cases more expensive than subsoiling. Indeed, their land, 
to the depth of two feet in the best cultivated districts, is 
completely turned over, and thoroughly intermixed once in 
the course of every six years. 

2. Manures. — The second great point, and that which 
almost transcends all others in its claims upon the farmer's 
attention, is the manufacture and increase of manure. It 
must be acknowledged that the resources for this object 
within the reach of most farmers are not half used, and 
means of creating and accumulating manures are neglected 
or wasted, which waste, if it could be represented by any 
pecuniary value, would astonish us. On many an English 
farm there are resources for manure neglected or lost, which 
would be much more than an equivalent for the rent. Let 
me here revert to the immense value of liquid manure, and 
the provision for and means of saving it, which I have treated 
so much at large. 



298 IMPORTANT PEACTIOAL CONCLUSIONS. 

3. Soiling of Cattle. — The third point of great considera- 
tion is that of the soiling of cattle. There are vast tracts of 
pasture land, to which the plough cannot be applied. Sheep 
and young cattle may occupy these. But the farmer will 
find an immense advantage in soiling his beef cattle and 
cows, and oftentimes his sheep also. They will be fed at less 
exj)ense ; they will be more under his inspection and control ; 
they will give him equal and, according to the opinions of 
many experienced farmers, greater returns in beef, butter, and 
cheese, than if kept in the ordinary way. Above all, the ex- 
traordinary and valuable increase of his manure-heap and 
cistern, under such circumstances, is a consideration above 
all others. Next to labour, manure is the great element of a 
farmer's prosperity. 

4. Improvement of Live Stock. — The fourth great matter 
to which I would call the farmer's attention is the improve- 
ment of his live stock. It is difficult to speak too highly of 
the skill and success of the English in the improvement of 
their breeds of sheep, swine, cattle, and, I will add, horses. 
I do not say that their breeds are all such as are best adapted 
for the United States. I need not repeat the opinions which 
I have already given in this matter. Different breeds of 
animals are suited to particular localities ; and the extent of 
the United States presents every variety of aspect, soil, and 
climate ; and is marked by different kinds of husbandry, 
such as the raising of stock for beef or labour ; the growing of 
wool, fine or coarse, short or long ; and the produce of the 
dairy. These points are all to be considered in the selection 
of a stock for breeding. An improved Durham short-horn 
would thrive and develope all his richness and beauty in the 
fertile meadows of Kentucky and Ohio, and the rich prairies 
of the west, who would become poor and dwarfish in some of 
the rocky and almost barren pastures of the north. But that 
to which I wish particularly to call the attention of the 



IMPORTANT PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS. 299 

farmers of the United States is, tlie improvement of tlieir 
stock by patient care, skill, and selection. They may import 
animals of improved breeds to advantage ; they may cross 
the best of their own stocks with the best animals which they 
can find ; and, above all, let them determine always to select 
the best animals for breeding, and breed only from the best ; 
never sacrifice a superior calf or lamb to the butcher, nor be 
satisfied with the services of inferior animals for the increase 
of their stock, under which they are sure to deteriorate. 

5. Improved Articles of Culture. — The next matter to 
which I beg their attention, is the cultivation of esculent 
vegetables, the improvement of plants, and the introduction 
of new articles of cultivation. The cultivation of esculent 
vegetables for stock, such as turnips, i-uta-baga, carrots, 
parsnips, or beet-root, is a matter which I would strongly 
recommend. Besides its being more conducive to the health 
of the animals, to their increase in meat and in milk, it will 
enable the farmer, in the feeding of his cattle, to consume his 
straw to advantage, and save more expensive forage ; and so 
increase his stock. 

The improvement of plants, by the careful selection of the 
earliest ripe, the fullest and the most perfect plants and seeds, 
may be carried to an equal extent with the improvement of 
animals. The fine barley called the Chevalier barley, and 
many of the finest kinds of wheat which are cultivated in 
Europe, are the product of some individual plants, selected 
in a large field, and carefully cherished by the cultivator. 
The difierence in the time of ripening, the diff'erence in the 
amount of product, the difierence in the quality of the grain, 
are all essential considerations. 

6. New Articles of Culture. — The introduction of new 
articles of cultivation are points of much importance. The 
flax crop is not by any means so extensively cultivated in the 



300 IMPORTANT PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS. 

United States, as it may be to advantage, especially when 
the value of its seed for fatting cattle is taken into the 
account. No article is more nutritious nor fattening both 
for sheep and cattle. I am diffident in advising the cultiva- 
tion in the United States of the oleaginous plants of Hol- 
land and Belgium, such as colza, rape, poppy, &;c. The 
expediency of doing this can only be determined by experi- 
ment. The cultivation of beet-root for sugar, considering 
the cheapness of the manufacture where it is well understood, 
and managed on a large scale, and especially in connexion 
with the value of the refuse for feeding and fattening cattle, 
deserves much thought and inquiry. Without reference to 
the production of sugar, the value of the crop for feeding 
stock, considering that no crop yields more, is more relished 
by cattle, or keeps sound to a later period in the spring, is 
great, and strongly recommends it. Few crops yield more 
to the acre, when well cultivated, or leave the land in better 
condition for a succeeding crop of grain. My own views in 
regard to this crop have most essentially altered in its 
favour. 

Lucerne, sainfoin, and vetches, are comparatively little cul- 
tivated in the United States. They are all in proper situa- 
tions highly valuable. Lucerne, in any system of soiling, 
would be extremely useful as sowing early in the spring, and 
giving under good culture an enormous yield, being at the 
same time a plant which actually enriches the soil. For later 
feeding in the season, the farmers of the United States have 
that most valuable of all plants for its forage and its grain, 
Indian corn, or maize. I may say, with the great Arthur 
Young, " that a country is signally blessed above others, 
which can grow Indian corn." In the middle states of the 
United States, sainfoin might perhaps be cultivated to advan- 
tage ; in the northern states, experience has shown that the 
winters are too severe for it. It makes a most nutritious and 
excellent hay. Vetches yield a large abundance of green 



IMPORTANT PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS. 301 

feed. St. John's day lye, of which I have spoken, may be cut 
two or tliree times, and yield also a large crop of grain. This 
would make an excellent forage for the purpose of soiling ; 
so, also, the improved Italian lye grass, which, when properly 
cared for, bears cutting several times in a season, and yields 
most abundantly. 

I must add, in the next place, that I should be glad to see 
the cultivation of the vine extended in the United States. 
In many parts of France, Germany, and Switzerland, it occu- 
pies land, steep acclivities, heights wholly inaccessible to a 
horse or cart, and where the manure is always carried up, the 
produce brought down, and sometimes the very soil in which 
it grows, transported by hand. There is land enough in 
the United States for its cultivation without such extreme 
toil. As an article of commerce, it would probably prove 
lucrative ; and as an article of comfort, perhaps few^ are more 
grateful and harmless. I speak in this case of the light wines 
of France, which do not intoxicate unless drunk to beastly 
excess. The strong wines of Spain and Portugal are made 
by some factitious process, and charged with brandy; but 
the light wines of France, being the pure juice of the grape, 
exhilarate, but do not intoxicate. They take the place of 
tea and coffee among the labouring people, and constitute an 
innocent alleviation of their severe toil. I should be sorry in 
any way to abridge these comforts, especially as I may say 
in truth, after travelling a long distance in the wine-growing 
districts, and at the time of the wine-making, or vintage, 
when it is to be had in the greatest abundance, that I saw no 
drunkenness or intoxication in any degree ; and I may add, 
that so far as my observation goes, there is not a more tem- 
perate people, than are to be found in the wine-growing de- 
partments of France. 

I need not add, that under the auspicious circumstances in 
which the United States are placed, her agriculture must be 
constantly increasing in importance to the country itself, and 



302 IMPORTANT PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS. 

to the civilized world, for her commerce penetrates every sea, 
and her bread-grains, as they have already done, may be of 
immense importance, and of indispensable necessity, in feed- 
ing the inhabitants of the old world. 

This completes the task which I undertook of giving, from 
personal observations, an account of European Agriculture 
and Rural Economy. I commend my work to the indulgence 
and candour of my readers. It was an undertaking too great 
for an individual to accomplish as one would desire that it 
should be done. It must satisfy me, I hope it will satisfy 
my friends, that I have, with unceasing anxiety, sought to 
execute it as well as I could. It was not to be expected that 
I should give a complete system of agriculture ; but I have 
constantly endeavoured to collect and present that informa- 
tion which would be most useful ; and to convey it in a 
simple and practical form. I have omitted many circum- 
stances, because they are well known. I have given full 
details wherever I thought they were required. As to my 
opinions on any subject upon which I have treated, I can only 
answer that they are my own ; that I am quite ready to 
yield them, when I find, upon further information, reason so 
to do ; and, above all, that my opinions or judgments do not 
encroach upon the personal right of independent judgment 
and opinion in any and all others. 

European agriculture lays under many burdens, from which 
the United States are free, and I pray may long remain so. 
The weight of taxation in most of the countries of Europe is 
very oppressive. The unproductive classes are numerous to an 
excess. Immense standing armies ; governments enormously 
expensive, and in a great measure irresponsible to the people; 
ecclesiastical establishments, and their attaches, demanding 
large contributions from labour, and returning, in many 
cases, little more in value than the bishop's blessing in iEsop's 
fable, are all to be sustained from the soil, and by the labour 
of those who cultivate it. In their present exemption from 



APPENDIX. 803 

these burdens, the farmers of the United States are greatly- 
blessed. May they duly appreciate their singular advantages, 
than which none greater ever fell to the lot of man in his 
social condition. To them we may apply the beautiful line 
of the immortal poet — 

O ! ter beati Agricolse, si sua bona noi'int '. 
' Thrice happy farmers, if they only knew their blessings. 



APPENDIX. 

EXTRACTS FROM THE REV. MR. RHAM's FLEMISH HUSBANDRY. 

SELECT FARMS. 

I. " A little beyond Courtray is a farm particularly noticed by Mr. Radcliffe. 
This farm is one of the finest and most compact we have seen. It consists of 
about one hundred and forty acres, of which about twenty are fine meadows 
along the rivei', occasionally flooded in wintex", but not irrigated ; about ten 
acres are rich heavy land, adjoining the meadows, in which beans and wheat 
thrive well ; all the remainder, about one hundred and six acres, lie in an 
oblong field bounded by a hedge-row. A road or path, six feet wide, runs 
through the middle of the field. The soil of this field is a rich light loam, 
which lies over a substratum of clay, but at such a depth as to be perfectly 
sound and dry. It is not extremely fertile in its own nature, but has been 
rendered so by many years of an improving husbandry. Every part of the 
land has been repeatedly trenched and stirred two or three feet deep ; and the 
immense quantity of manure, chiefly liquid, put on year after year, has con- 
verted the whole into a very rich mould. The strength and vigour of the crops 
bear witness to the goodness of the husbandry. There were fifteen acres of 
most beautiful flax of a bright straw colour, and the stems a yard long. This, 
besides the seed, was worth in the stack from 25/. to 30/. per acre ; twelve 
acres of colza had produced about four hundred bushels of seed ; eighteen 
acres of oats looked so promising, that they could not be set at less than foi'ty- 
five bushels per acre ; eighteen acres of wheat, which stood well with short but 
plump ears, we valued at forty bushels per aci'e ; eighteen acres of rye, partly 
cut, with the straw above six feet high, would probably produce rather more 
than the wheat. There were six aci'es of white poppy, of which every plant 
was strong and upright, and the ground under it as clean as a garden : the 
expected produce would be about twenty to twenty-three bushels per acre ; six 
acres were in potatoes, expected to produce three hundred and seventy-eight 
bushels per acre. A small patch, about an acre, was in carrots, which looked 
fine and large j» twelve acres were in clover, nearly the whole of which was cut 



304 APPENDIX. 

green to give to the cows and horses ; it produces three good cuts in the year 
where it is not allowed to go to seed, Tiie ten acres of heavy land were partly 
in Leans and partly in wheat. 

" Thus we have one hundred and sixteen acres all profitably cropped, leaving 
four acres for the roads and farm-buildings. Although this farm is within two 
miles and a half of Courtray, the greatest part of the manure is collected on the 
farm. Rape-cake is used most pi'ofusely, and to this, as well as to the depth of 
the soil, the beauty of the flax is ascribed." 

11. " Near Alost we met with one of the smallest farms, which will maintain 
a family without other work : it was barely five acres. There was a small 
orchard of about a quarter of an acre, in which tiiere were some thriving apple 
and plum trees. The grass under these was good ; and the only cow which 
the man had was led by the wife to graze there for a short time every day, 
apparently more for exercise than for food. The grass seemed ta have been 
cut for her in another part. The man regretted that he had not the means to 
purchase a second cow, as he could have maintamed two very well. Half of 
the land was in wheat, the other half in clover, flax, and potatoes ; so that the 
clover did not recur sooner than in six years ; the flax and potatoes in nine. 
As soon as the wheat was cut, he began to hack the stubble about four inches 
deep, with the heavy hoe, and as fast as he got a piece done, it was sown with 
turnips, after having some of the contents of the urLue-tank poured over it ; 
for, small as the farm was, it had its reservoir for this precious manure. Thus a 
considerable portion of the wheat stubble was soon covered with young turnips of 
a quick-growing sort, which, if sown before the middle of August, ivere fit to be 
pulled in November, and stored in the cellar for winter use. There was a small 
patch of cameline, which was sown less for the seed than for the stem, of which 
he made brooms in his leisure hours, when snow covered the ground. The 
whole five acres had to be dug in the course of the year, and as much of it as 
possible trenched ; the soil being a stiff loam of a good depth, which was much 
improved by trenching and stirring. The milk and potatoes fed the family, 
with the addition of a little salt pork ; for a pig was fed on the refuse of the 
food given to the cow, and a very little corn, and consequently was not over- 
burdened with fat. Most of the wheat and all the flax were sold, and more 
than paid the rent, which was not high — about 10^. a year. Incessant labour 
kept the man in good health, and his wife was not idle. They had two or three 
young children ; but, except the wish for another cow, there seemed no great 
dissatisfaction with their lot, nor any great fears for tiie future. They had no 
parish-fund to fall back upon, not even a union workhouse ; but, had they come 
to want by unforeseen accidents, they would have found the hand of private 
charity stretched out to help them." 



THE END. 



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